TYKG 



He Will Come ; 

OR, 

MEDITATIONS UPON THE RETURN OF THE LORD JESUS 
CHRIST TO REIGN OVER THE EARTH, 

By STEPHEN II. TYNG, Jr., D.D. 

WITH AN INTRODUCTION 

By STEPHEN H. TYNG, D.D., 

Rector of St. George's Church, New York City. 
, 



"Yet a little while, ana He that shall come will come, and will not 
tarry."— Hebrews 37. 



NEW YORK : 
MUCKLOW & SIMON, PUBLISHERS, 
Forty-second Street and Madison Avenue. 
187T. 



Copyright. 
Stephen H. Tyng, Jr. ? 
1877. 

£ Exchange 

4e^T And Navy Olufc 

SECOND EDITION. 



Holt Brothers, Crum & Ringler, 
Printers, Electrotypers, 

151 "William Street, 113 Nassau Street, 
New York. New York. 



Preface. 



Every beam from the sun is a sheaf of rays. The fields 
of light are fully harvested by the Father of lights. Aud the 
gleaner has uo scattered glories to gather. In each bundle, 
so delicately intertwined by the Divine hand as to evade 
superficial analysis, are interwoven illumination, heat and 
chemical force. These combine to reveal beauty to the eye, 
repair the waste of the body and prepare food for every 
form of life. They bring us strange stories of the worlds 
beyond, us in space. The spectrum compels the sunshine to 
tell out the secrets of the soil, from which it sprang. The 
very materials, of which the great luminary is composed, 
are tested by the crystal prism. The mercury measures the 
heat, which, after so weary a journey, is transferred by each 
twisted ray from the unsearchable fires, that surge over the 
surface of the solar sphere. The storehouse of the coal-mine, 
the garden of herbs, the trees of the forest and the health of 
man are replenished and inspired by the fire from afar. The 
chemist in his laboratory and the farmer in the field are ever 
seizing and sowing again the germs of vital force received 
from the heavens. Every opening bud blesses in its bloom 
these peculiar influences of the sky. The arts enslave the 
sun, even to the bondage of photography, and make the 
income of his ceaseless harvest the spring of luxury and life. 



4 



HE WILL COME. 



All these principles are banded together in every glinting of 

glory from that world, whose best name is " harvest-home." 

And be thou sure, what tint so'er 
The broken rays beneath may wear, 
It needs them all, that, broad and white, 
God's love may weave the perfect light. 

The truth of a self-revealing God is our Great Light in the 
spiritual life. Every inspired passage had its birth and re- 
ceived its body of words in the mind of the All-Wise. These 
texts of scripture are sheaves of the first fruits, grouped and 
given to us by the hand of Divine Grace. We wave them in 
praise before God, as did Israel of old, aud feast upon the fat- 
ness of the land, from whence they have been gathered. What 
manifestations of the nature, perfections, purposes, will or 
work of our reconciled Father and God does each verse make to 
the trustful soul. " Light is sown for the righteous, and glad- 
ness for the upright in heart.' 7 Faith reaps the fulness of the 
field. The figure of the sunshine is justified in the promises 
of Divine fidelity. They shine like a light in a dark place. All 
illumination of the eyes of our understanding, and every in- 
spiration of our life can come from this source alone. Others 
may delight in the rays of prophecy which are intermingled 
with the promises, as revelations of the purposes of Him who 
is a " consuming fire." But there is no spiritual force in such 
study. It is more like that knowledge which " puffeth 
up." Still others may with subtle speculation seek to separate 
the principles of the Word, never satisfied until they can 
dogmatize, like philosophers, about the measure aud method of 
the properties of growth in each truth. But wiser far are they, 
who, " called out of darkness iuto marvellous light*' determine 
with full surrender of self to u walk before God in the light 



PREFACE. 



5 



of the living." They will find both heat and force in the 
brightness of the Divine assurance. Not one blessing can be 
lost, if escaping from the darkness of doubt and the dungeons 
of discontent and despair, the Christian basks iu the shine 
of the promises, which u are yea and amen in Christ Jesus." 
This book is offered to every reader as a trap to catch such 
I sunbeams. The purpose of the author has been an exposition of 
u the promise of His coming," as the revelation of the will of 
God. With the intricate questions and correspondences of 
prophecy he does not intermeddle. Every thought, that tempts 
the mind from the Glorious Saviour, works an eclipse of a 
promise. And the author is convinced that all the perversions 
of the doctrine of the pre-Millennial Appearing of our Lord, 
which have doue so much to discredit the truth, will on ex- 
amination be found to have had this as their initial point of 
departure. Iu contrast with all such discussions of prophecy, 
this book has a defiued mission. If the Spirit of God shall em- 
ploy it as a mirror to reflect in ever so partial a manner, 
the glory of Jesus, the prayers, which accompany its publica- 
tion , will be echoed in the thanksgivings of " all them that 
love His appearing." 

" Glory to Thee by all be given ; — 
Of light the light, in earth and heaven; 
Of joys the joy, of suns the sun, 
Jesus, the Father's chosen One." 

Church of the Holy Trinity, 
New York City, 
April 2d, 18T7. 



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Contents. 



PAGE. 

Introduction, 9 

I. 

The Two Advents, 13 

II. 

The Glorious Appearing, 21 

III. 

The Man from the Glory, 30 

IV. 

The Glorious Man, 42 

V. 

The Glory Revealed in Us, 52 

VI. 

The Glorious Rapture, 66 



8 HE WILL COME. 



VII. 

A Glimpse of the Glory, 78 

VIII. 

Before the Man in the Glory, 91 

IX. 

The Four Crowns, 100 

X. 

The Marriage of the Lamb, 119 

XL 

The Coming with Glory, 140 

XII. 

The Kingdom of Glory, 157 

XIII. 

The Glory Begun Below, 182 

XIV. 

Then Cometh the End, *202 



Passages of Scripture Illustrated and Interpreted, 209 



Introduction. 



HAVE read the work, which is here 
>!-ys\^ presented to the public attention, 
Jfoff^ with great satisfaction. It presents 
'f^ views of Divine truth, and of the pur- 
poses and promises of the Divine revelation, 
% which I was personally led to adopt, many 
years since, with entire conviction and with great 
thankfulness. The certainty of this personal and 
premillenial advent of the Gracious Saviour of 
men, to accomplish the purposes of his redemption, 
and to establish his promised kingdom on the 
earth, seems to me indubitable. Its " times and 
seasons, the Father hath put in his own power." 
Christian duty and hope depend not upon a 
minute revelation of these. But the reality of this 



10 BE WILL COME. 

promised manifestation, and the dependence of 
so many events and results of unspeakable impor- 
tance, upon the fact of this glorious appearance, 
give a practical character and influence to the event, 
which should, and will, fasten the attention of be- 
lievers in the gospel, and in the inspiration of the 
scriptures, more and more earnestly and constantly 
upon it. 

This "looking for that blessed hope, and the 
glorious appearing of the great God and our Sav- 
iour, Jesus Christ," must have the effect, under the 
teaching and power of the Spirit, to lead us to a 
" sober and godly living in this present world," 
" that we may be found of Him in peace, without 
spot, and blameless, and a peculiar people, zealous 
of good works," in the hour of His appearing. 

The instructive method of consideration, and the 
constant practical reference to the words of holy 
scripture in relation to this great and precious sub- 
ject, which have been so faithfully pursued in the 
accompanying volume, lead me earnestly to com- 
mend it, and to anticipate for it, an adaptation to 
practical usefulness, which I am sure our gracious 
Lord will be pleased to grant to it, with His own 



INTRODUCTION. 11 

favor and blessing. The size of this volume will 
hardly allow a complete and exhaustive discussion 
of this most important subject, as a fact, but will 
give the opportunity and the inducement for a 
serious and affectionate consideration of the practi- 
cal topics and suggestions, and of the motive to 
Christian duty and usefulness, which it so clearly 
contains. And it will thus be practically and effec- 
tively useful to the plainest reader of the "Word of 
God, in its English translation. 

The value of such an influence and result, cannot 
be too highly estimated. To live, in the constant 
remembrance of this promised coming of the Lord, 
is a high and precious attainment for every disciple, 
under His guidance. It is really to live as in His 
sight, under the constant supervision of His unerring 
watchfulness ; keeping in exercise the strongest 
motives to a life of holiness, and a walk of useful- 
ness, in every appointed relation of earthly life. 

Thus our Lord Himself applies this great fact of 
His certain, but unlimited advent — St. Mark xiii., 35 : 
" Watch ye therefore; for ye know not when the 
Master of the house cometh, at even, or at mid- 
night, or at the cock-crowing, or in the morning ; 



12 



EE WILL COME. 



lest coming suddenly, He find you sleeping; and 
what I say unto you I say unto all, watch ! " 

In this aspect, as a motive to human obligation 
and duty, the earnest consideration of this certain, 
but unknown Advent of our Lord becomes of incal- 
culable importance. 

And if the work here presented, shall be made, in 
any degree, to encourage and maintain, such effective 
and constant watchfulness and earnestness, in the 
Christian life, of those who read it, the highest 
aspirations of the author must meet their noblest 
and most important reward. 

Stephen H. Tyng« 

St. George's Rectory, New York, March, 1STT. 



I. 

The Two Advents. 



The grace of God that bringetti salvation hath appeared to all men, 
teaching us, that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live 
soberly, righteously and godly, in this present world; looking for that 
blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our 
Saviour Jesus Christ.— Titus ii., 11-13. 




HE first Sunday in the ecclesiastical 
year of the Protestant Episcopal 
Church is called " Advent. 5 ' It re- 
cords and prophecies the coming of 
Christ Jesus, the Saviour and King, into 
a world, which He hath redeemed and over 
which He will reign. Between these two appearings 
of the same person we are passing our lives of privi- 
lege and responsibility. " The grace that bringeth 
salvation " is an inalienable possession of every 



14 HE WILL COME. 

believer. " The glorious appearing " is the coming 
sun-rise for which, as a watcher in the night, he is 
" waiting " and " looking." His life is preserved 
and protected under the double and commingled 
shadow of a cross and a throne. His sins are cov- 
ered by the first, and his infirmities and shortcom- 
ings are compensated by the second. Absolute 
salvation is his assurance. Already has his person 
been judged in the dying of the Lord Jesus, who, 
"now once in the end of the world, hath appeared to 
put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself."* With 
delight may he desire the promised descent of his 
Judge and King, for, "unto them that look for Him 
shall He appear the second time, without sin, unto 
salvation. 53 | The intervening or succeeding judg- 
ment, has for him no terrors, since " there is now 
no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, 
who walk not after the flesh but after the spirit." J 
Advent testifies to Jesus Christ. He is the first. 
He is the beginning of the creation of God. He is 
the first-born among many brethren. He is the 
source of all grace. He is the author and finisher 
of our faith. He is the chief among ten thousand, 

* Heb. ix.. 26. t Heb. ix., 28. t Rom. viii., 1. 



THE TWO ADVENTS. 15 

the one altogether lovely. He is the first and the last, 
the all and in all. To His coming in the weakness of 
the flesh all profane history looked forward for its 
date. Julius Csesar lived so many years before 
Christ ; and every calendar of later generations con- 
fesses the Annum Domini — the year of the Lord — 
as the initial point of all its calculations. This is 
Christ's place in the history of the world. 

His coming to die was the long-deferred antici- 
pation of the multitudes in the Jewish Church, who, 
like aged Simeon, waited for the consolation of 
Israel, and then sang their song of departure. Their 
confidence found that day at Bethlehem its divinely 
appointed justification. In the birth of Jesus all 
faith, from Abel's to Simeon's, centered and was 
glorified. 

But our present faith is retrospective. It 
recognizes that coming as an historical fact, in 
which are bound up all the privileges, to which 
the believer can either aspire or attain. The gen- 
erations since the beginning of this Christian Era 
have drawn all their love and joy and peace and 
inspiration from that solitary old-time manifestation 
of Jesus Christ. Therefore does this church of 



16 HE WILL COME. 

ours place before all other truth, before every other 
scheme of discipline, before all reminders of privi- 
lege and duty, before the marvels which the Holy 
Ghost afterwards reveals and applies, this event of 
events. The voice of the church is, 'Let Advent 
be file-leader of the festivals.' 

The first coming of Jesus Christ is the warrant 
for our faith, the reason of our hope, and the 
inspiration of our love. The traveler who ascends 
the Righi extends his horizon. While the inhabi- 
tants of the Swiss valleys are in darkness, he is 
welcoming the sun. His face is already glisten- 
ing with the glory of the new day. The air that 
he breathes is full of life. He must sing for joy 
over the deliverance from night, and the earnest of 
the perfect day, that he receives with the dawn. 
He, who by faith dwells in the high places of a 
finished salvation through the birth, obedience, 
death, resurrection and ascension of Jesus of 
Nazareth, knows the fact of which this is but a 
figure. Too many are content with the shadow of 
the cross. This is indeed a great benefit. But 
there is somewhat better than this in the sacrifice of 
our Saviour. It may become to all an observatory. 



THE TWO ADVENTS. 17 

Stand firmly upon it, and mark how the shades of 
darkness and doubt are growing thinner as "the 
day of the Lord is at hand." Praise the Christ of 
the past ! Proclaim the coming Christ ! 

The Advent season is a reminder of this second 
equally important fact, that our Lord Jesus Christ 
will return to this earth. His second visit holds 
precisely the same relation to the culminating events 
of His kingdom as did His first coming to the work 
of His redemption. In that advent of glory all the 
prophecies find their point of union, and from that 
coming all privileges in the millennial kingdom, 
and the dispensations beyond, derive their bright- 
ness and power. In the face of all evasions of the 
literal language of God's Word, of all the 
cavils of man's doubting unbelief, of false 
and intrusive interpretations of prophecies, which 
would assign the day, and thus divert the minds of 
the faithful from the Word of God itself, in contra- 
diction of all these opposing influences, this church 
of ours speaks out among the churches in its testi- 
mony to the second coming of Jesus Christ. In 
creed, we profess " He shall come again ;" in the 
constitution of the seasons we declare, we " look for 



18 HE WILL COME. 

the Lord," that blessed hope ; in collect we pray 
that " at Thy second coming to judge the world " 
we may be found an acceptable people in Thy sight ; 
and in article we testify that " He ascended into 
heaven, and there sitteth until He returns to judge 
all men at the last day." There can be no question 
what is the doctrine of this church on the second 
advent of Jesus Christ. 

And yet how few among us are like unto men 
that "wait for their Lord, when lie will return from 
the wedding ; that when He cometh and knocketh 
they may open unto Him immediately."* " It is 
high time to awake out of sleep : for now is our sal- 
vation nearer than when we believed. The night is 
far spent, the day is at hand."| Christian charac- 
ter has lost robustness and soundness. The church 
and the world are in too close communion. Light is 
seeking concord with darkness. Belial is fawning 
before and nattering Christ. It was not so in the 
early churches. It is not so to-day among those, 
who, like the Thessalonians, " wait for His Son 
from heaven, whom He raised from the dead, even 
Jesus, which delivered us from the wrath to come."f 

* Luke xii., 36. t Rom. xiii., 11. 1 1 Thess. i., 10. 











THE TWO ADVENTS. 19 




It will not be so with those of us, who shall together 
search the Scriptures for the certainty and signs of 
His appearing. Precious influences and inspira- 
tions shall they receive, who shall forecast, through 
the glass of the Word, their coronation with Christ. 
Whilst communing, through the promises, with the 
coming Lord, we shall receive new assurance of our 
security in His blood and unconscious conformity to 
His likeness. To endeavor, to dare, to endure, these 
are three parts of Christian life which must have the 
love of His sacrifice for their constraint and longing 
for His appearing as their expression and compensa- 
tion. In every act of each day of all believers are 
the two advents of Jesus conjoined. " Wherefore 
gird up the loins of your mind, be sober, and hope 
to the end for the grace that is to be brought unto 
you at the revelation of Jesus Christ."* 

* 1 Peter i., 13. 

What is our sweetest joy? 

Beloved companion say ; 
What our delightful, best employ, 
Untiring, free from all alloy, 

In this dark, cloudy day ? 
To speak together of our home, 
Looking for him who soon will come. 









20 



RE WILL COME. 



Where do our spirits find 

Kefreshment and repose ? 
When heart to heart, and mind to mind, 
We search those records God designed, 

To medicine all our woes ; 
And feel, as bright its pages shine, 
Each line was traced by Love diviue. 

We look on all around 

As soon to disappear ; 
We listen to the tempest's sound, 
As wildly now it sweeps around, 

Without an anxious fear ; 
We hear a voice amidst its swell 
Which whispers, " All will soon be well ! 99 

Yes, soon the Lord will come ) 

Then will all trouble cease ; 
Earth's kingdoms will His own become ; 
Proud Anti-Christ will meet his doom ; 

All will be joy and peace : 
These very storms prepare His way, 
And usher in that glorious day. 

C. Elliott. 



II. 

The Glorious Appearing. 



I thank my God always on your behalf, for the grace of God which is 
given you by Jesus Christ ; that in everything ye are enriched by Him, in 
all utterance, and in all knowledge ; even as the testimony of Christ was 
confirmed in you : so that ye come behind in no gift ; waiting for the com- 
ing of our Lord Jesus Christ : who shall also confirm you unto the end, 
t'.iat ye may be blameless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ.— 1 Cor. 
i., 4-8. 




3 TTR confidence in prophecy depends 
upon the observed correspondence 
between past predictions and their ful- 
filment. If the life of Jesus Christ 
in the flesh does not echo the voice of 
prophecy from the first declaration in the 
garden down to the last expression of Malachi, then 
there is no basis of belief or hope for the second 
coming of our Lord. But if, according to all the 
gospels, Jesus did this thing and that thing, the 



22 RE WILL COME. 

third thing, and hundreds of things, in order " that 
the scriptures might be fulfilled," if there be such 
an agreement between the fact and the fulfilment 
as no impostor could create, and no fraud could 
afterwards in the record interpolate, then have we a 
solid ground, upon which our faith may rest in the ex- 
pectation of His coming again. This we assume, 
having reason for the conviction. 

The laws of interpretation, which prevail in a true 
exposition of prophecy, when clearly ascertained, 
may be applied to unfulfilled prophecy, for that 
which is accomplished and that which yet awaits its 
fulfilment stand side by side in the same chapter, 
and often in the same verse. To deny to such con- 
nected testimonies of God a common rule of 
interpretation would manifestly be to " handle the 
"Word of God deceitfully." Moreover, it could only 
result in forcing those, who refuse to construe the 
language of the Bible according to the accepted 
principles of all literature, to admit the most 
disastrous errors. The ruin of souls is involved in 
the rejection of the literal rendering of all scrip- 
tures. "What right have we to insist that His 
coming judgment of sinners is to be a fact, if 



THE GLORIOUS APPEARING. 



23 



we assert that " the Son of Man coming in the 
clouds of heaven, with power and great glory," * is 
only a figure of the incursion of the Roman emperor, 
Titus, at the head of an army. The TJniversalist 
may be right after all, if God did not literally say 
^vhat He meant. Then again, to resolve the re- 
peated announcements of His future advent into a 
figurative prediction of the extending power of 
tie gospel in the conversion of the world, is to 
o^en the way for a parallel claim by the Uni- 
tarian, that His manifold declarations of His 
equality and oneness with the Father were only 
another mode of illustrating His spotless integrity 
as a man. The truth of God is at stake instantly 
we wander from the natural and rhetorical render- 
ing of the Word of God. There are doubtless in 
the Bible many metaphors and similes, but there 
are universally accepted rules for their exposition. 
These and these only can be justly and safely 
applied. The danger and impiety of adding to or 
taking away from the words of this prophecy are 
unspeakable. Let us fear the consequences of 
Uzzah's sin. The tottering ark is in the keeping 



* Matt, xxiv,, 30. 



Q4 



HE WILL COME. 



of God. Better that it should seem for a time to 
tremble than that the. church should be taught to 
presume. " The wisdom of God is wiser than 
men." TTe turn to the Word of God for our war- 
rant. If this book speaks, let all keep silent. If 
this book be silent, let no one dare to speak. Le: 
our expectation be according to the mind of the 
Spirit. 

The student of the scriptures must recognise 
the gradual development of dispensation after dis- 
pensation in the unf olding of prophecy. Let us stand 
for a moment in the light of the early prediction in 
the garden to the fallen parents of our race. 
A son should be given to them, and by then- seel 
their enemy should not only be bruised, but de- 
stroyed. That single prophecy grew in the mani- 
fold words of the Spirit, through other revealers, 
until at last we have the full description, in Isaiah, of 
this glorious Messiah, in His sufferings and His tri- 
umph. These are so clearly recorded, that the 
book reads like history, rather than prediction. 
This was the first object of faith through all 
the dispensations — a Saviour that was to come, 
and to be crucified, to " be cut off, but not 



THE GLORIOUS APPEARING, 



25 



for Himself." But all the prophecies do not 
agree in such a declaration, for beyond and behind 
the cross there is a throne. Glory is in the future ; 
and faith, rivetting its gaze upon a crucified and 
rejected Christ, is beckoned on with curiosity to 
examine something in distant cloud-land, that is yet 
to be made more plain. When Jesus the Master 
had come, in His worn and weary form, in His life 
of constant toil and trial, when He had accomplished 
the purpose of His mission in the crucifixion on Gol- 
gotha, then read we clearly of that cloud-land. Now 
the throne takes shape. Now hope may go forward 
in its excursions of delight, and sit at the feet of 
" the Lamb as it had been slain, in the midst of the 
throne." Now faith may lay hold of the assured 
promises that this King shall reign upon the earth. 
But beyond this second coming and glorious domin- 
ion, another cloud-land, which we call heaven, 
stretches out. Tell me, what do you know about 
heaven ? What can you learn from this Word of 
God about heaven ? It is to " be present 
with the Lord," * " to be with Christ, which 
is far better." t Beyond such general expressions, 

* 2 Cor. v., 8. t Phil, i., 23. 



26 HE WILL COME. 

and many gorgeous emblems, we have positively no 
description of the land that is very far off. Well 
and wisely sang Keble : 

What is the heaven our God bestows ? 
No prophet yet, no angel knows 5 
Was never yet created eye 
Could see across Eternity ; 
Not seraph's wing, forever soaring, 
Can pass the flight of souls adoring j 
That nearer still, and nearer grow 
To the unapproached Lord, once made for them so low. 

We have the most indistinct revelation of that dis- 
pensation, which is to succeed the millennium ; but 
on almost every page of the Xew Testament have wc 
plain teaching about the coming of Christ to reign, 
and to judge the children of men. Who can tell 
whether this Bible is complete ? Perfect it is for 
this dispensation. Even as when Malachi closed the 
Old Testament canon, why may not a Is ewer Apoc- 
alypse be added to John's Revelation, when, under 
the crown of Jesus, we submit ourselves, and enter 
into His glory ! Then the rest that remaineth for 
the people of God, which is now so shadowy, shall 
be clearly defined, even as the second coming of 
Christ is now made most plain. 

The Lord's promise to his disciples was not 



THE GLORIOVS APPEARING. 27 

heaven, but His own re-appearing with glory. His 
latter words at the Last Supper had this return for 
their topic. Until the society of believers had been 
sifted by the withdrawal of Judas, He spake not a 
word about the future triumph. When " the son of 
perdition " had gone out into the dark, He opened 
the secrets of His purpose : "I go to prepare a 
place for you. And if I go and prepare a place 
for you, I will come again and receive you unto 
Myself." * " I go away, and come again unto you." f 
" A little while, and ye shall not see Me : and, 
again, a little while, and ye shall see Me, because 
I go to the Fatlier."J "I will see you again, and 
your heart shall rejoice, and your joy no man 
taketh from you." § The book of Acts is full 
of intimations that this re-appearance of the Lord 
was the continual anticipation of the first Chris- 
tians. St. Paul wrote his epistles to the Thes- 
salonians before all the others which bear his name. 
In them he recapitulates His preaching at Thes- 
salonica and its results : " Ye turned to God from 
idols, to serve the living and true God ; and to wait 
for His Son from heaven." || Even heathen were 

* John xiv., 2, 3. t ib., 28. t John xvi., 16. § ib., 22. II 1 Thess. i., 9, 10. 



28 HE WILL COME. 

told the blessed hope, and young believers rejoiced 
in its assurance. 

It is doubtless true that generations have 
"fallen on sleep," who waited to receive a death- 
less transfer to " the Father's house." Disap- 
pointment has been the history of the watching 
church. His coming has been possible at any time. 
Its probability grows with every generation. The 
« parables contain very plain intimations that the 
time of the Lord's appearing might be delayed. 
Had this fact, as we now recognize it, been more 
openly told, all generations previous to the last 
would have been defrauded of that powerful motive, 
w T hich is suggested by the immediate nearness of the 
returning Lord. And yet it was not our Master's 
purpose to make an error the source of our con- 
straint in the Christian life. But it is an essential 
element of the truth that He may be now " at the 
door." This imminence of the appearing is to be 
recognized by every age. There is never to be more 
than " a moment, the twinkling of an eye," between 
the widowed and the wedded condition of the church 
of Christ. This moment we may be waiting, and 
the next " caught up together with them in the 



THE GLORIOUS APPEARING. 



29 



clonds, to meet the Lord in the air : and so shall we 
ever be with the Lord." * 

* 1 Thess. iv., 17. 

How long, Oil Lord our Saviour 

Wilt Thou remain away ? 
Some hearts are growing weary, 

For Thy so long delay. 
Oh, when shall come the moment, 

When, brighter far than morn, 
The sunlight of Thy glory 

Shall on Thy people dawn ? 

How long, oh heavenly bridegroom, 

How long dost thou delay ? 
And yet, how few are grieving, 

That Thou dost absent stay ! 
Thy very bride her portion 

And calling hath forgot, 
And seeks for ease and pleasure, 

When Thou her Lord art not. 

Awake Thy slumbering virgins, 

Send forth the solemn cry, 
Let all Thy saints repeat it — 

The Bridegroom draweth nigh. 
Let all our lamps be burning, 

Our loins well girded be, 
Each eager heart expecting 

With joy Thy face to see. 



III. 

The Mait from the Glory. 



" And the very God of peace sanctify you wholly : and I pray God your 
whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of 
our Lord Jesus Christ."—! Thess. v., 23. 




HE re-appearance of the Man from the 
Glory is to be manifested in different 
wise to the waiting believer and to 
the world. There will intervene a season 
of great tribulation upon the earth between 
His coming into the air for His saints and 
His revelation, with His saints, to those who have 
proved apostate and rebellious to the Gospel. It is 
needful that these different parts of the same com- 
ing should be carefully discriminated in meditation, 
if we are to attain correct and profitable knowledge 
of this wonderful promise. They are distinctly 



THE MAN FROM THE GLORY. 31 

stated in the Word of God to be separate, the one 
from the other, and yet to combine in "that blessed 
hope and the glorious appearing." 

How this can be might be illustrated from many 
passages in history. When Cromwell was the Protec- 
tor of England the nation's rightful king, by family 
line, was a fugitive from her shores. The government 
to which he was born was in the hands of a supplanter. 
To return and recover his throne was both the prom- 
ise of the sovereign to his loyal people and the prayer 
sent by constant messengers from them to him. Their 
confidence and fidelity were severely tested by his de- 
lay. Many gave up the fond hope that his reign would 
be reestablished, and swore allegiance to the Common- 
wealth. To those, who remained faithful, at last he 
came in utmost secrecy. None others knew that he 
had crossed the Channel. They continued their 
careless lives because unconscious of his nearness. 
Many days were spent by the king in the society of 
his friends, in the distribution of ranks and rewards, 
and in the arrangement of his plans for the re-as- 
sumption of the crown. At last the day dawned, on 
which the king was to be proclaimed. Accompanied 
by those, to whom he had confided his purposes and 



32 HE WILL COME. 

assigned stations of authority, and supported by the 
army prepared to do his bidding, he showed himself 
openly to the people. " Long live the king l n cried 
those, who were with him. The people were astound- 
ed at the summons. It was his appearing to them, 
though to the elect from among them he had secretly 
come a long while before. Thus related will be the 
portion of the waiting church and the confusion of 
the godless world. Startling and satisfying events 
are to occur between His coming stealthily to His 
people and His revelation in judgment upon the living 
sinners. AYith these in mind, the apostle intercedes 
that the Thessalonian Christians may " be preserved 
blameless unto the coming." Blessed indeed shall 
he be who is claimed at the secret visit of the Man 
from the Glory. " They shall be mine, saith the 
Lord of Hosts, in that day when I make up my 
jewels; and I will spare them, as a man spareth his 
own son that serveth him."* 

Twelve times after His resurrection did our Lord 
appear to His disciples. Forty days were thus occu- 
pied by Him in the application of His finished 
salvation to all phases of doubt and devotion. 

* MalacM in., IT. 



THE MAX FROM THE GLORY. 33 

When this work, was accomplished, " He led them 
out as far as to Bethany ; and He lifted up His 
hands and blessed them. And it came to pass, 
while He blessed them, He was parted from them 
and carried up into heaven."* 

He has gone. Clouds have shut Him from the 
view of His disciples. The voice of an angel speaks 
to them in the testimony : " Ye men of Galilee, 
why stand ye gazing up into heaven ? This same 
Jesus, which is taken up from you into heaven, 
shall so come in like manner as ye have seen Him go 
into heaven. "f He had scarcely left the disciples, 
they had felt only the first pain of orphanage, they 
had not begun to realize the promise that they were 
to be indued with the power of the Holy Ghost, 
when this comforting assurance of a return in visi- 
ble manifestation to them is given. 

Since that day the Lord's glorified body has been 
absent from the sight of the Church. The Holy 
Ghost has indeed taken of the things of Jesus and 
shown them unto us. The reality of His spiritual 
nearness, with " two or three gathered together in 
His name," has been by a great multitude tested and 

* Luke xxiv., 50, 51. t Acts i., 11. 



34 HE WILL COME. 



enjoyed. Individual believers, m seasons of sick- 
ness, sorrow and struggle, have recognized Him, 
manifested unto them as He doth not manifest 
Himself unto the world. And yet it is strictly true, 
that in His glorified humanity, He has never since 
that day on Olivet, touched this earth. Our con- 
fessions of confidence and praise testify : " whom 
having not seen, ye love ; in whom, though now 
ye see Him not, yet believing, ye rejoice with joy 
unspeakable and full of glory : receiving the end of 
your faith, even the salvation of your souls."* Our 
mutual congratulation and anticipation voice them- 
selves in a like admission : " Beloved, now are we 
the sons of God ; and it doth not yet appear what 
we shall be : but we know that, when He shall ap- 
pear, we shall be like Him ; for we shall see Him as 
He is."| Our sacramental seasons are tokens of a 
Lord who for a time has withdrawn Himself, and are 
limited in their observance : " For as often as ye eat 
this bread, and drink this cup, ye do show the Lord's 
death till He come.":}: If it could by any process 
be proved that the real presence of Christ Jesus' 
Deity and glorified humanity did ever since the 

* 1 Peter i., S, 9. 1 1 John iii., 2. 1 1 Cor. xi„ 26. 



THE MAN FROM THE GLOEY. 35 

ascension "veil itself," as errorists say, "under the 
forms of bread and wine," then should we be war- 
ranted in discarding the sacrament of the Supper 
as an ordinance of the believer's life. The memo- 
rial of the absent Saviour ceases to be a binding 
obligation wherever and whenever the miracle of 
the mass is wrought. "Till He come" are the words, 
which define its character and describe its continu- 
ance. Superstition has feigned that which it cannot 
find. The Lord's Supper has been perverted from 
a feast to the embodiment of a presence, because 
Christians have failed to receive the fact of the 
removal of the glorified body of Christ to the 
"right hand of God," and the promise of His visible 
coming to His church at the close of this dispensa- 
tion. The truth abides ever, though we prove un- 
believing. "He cannot deny Himself." 

This secret revelation of the Christ to His chosen 
ones, is introduced with great frequency among the 
promises of His appearing. As a preparatory event, 
which has no immediate relation to the apostate 
and godless, it is naturally predicted, in connection 
with the assurances and precepts, which inspire and 
guard the believer's life. It is a love-message to His 



36 HE TT ILL COME, 

beloved. In close sequence to words of instruction 
and comfort addressed to those, who were bewailing 
the death of many friends and bemoaning for such 
their loss of privilege, since they had "fallen on sleep" 
before the fulfilment of his appearing, St. Paul wrote : 
" For this we say unto you by the Word of the 
Lord, that we which are alive and remain unto the 
coming of the Lord shall not prevent (have the 
preference over ) them which are asleep. For the Lord 
Himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, 
with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump 
of God : and the dead in Christ shall rise first : 
Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up 
together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord 
in the air : and so shall we ever be with the Lord. 
Wherefore comfort one another with these words.'' * 
How gladdening to a grieving believer is this vista 
into the future ! There is no consolation of God's 
Word to be compared with it as we carry our dead 
to God's acre. 

Parallel testimonies will be found in other epis- 
tles, to which we shall refer hereafter, as illustrations 
of connected truths. Let us confine ourselves at pres- 

* 1 Thess. iv.. 15-13. 



THE MAX FROM THE GLORY. 37 

ent to the words of the Master Himself. The separa- 
tions to be wrought by this coming for His saints, 
are graphically sketched by His own predictions : 
" I tell yon, in that night there shall be two 
men in one bed; the one shall be taken and 
the other left. Two women shall be grinding 
together ; the one shall be taken and the other 
left."* So silently shall the saints of God be stolen 
away that the world will for a time be confounded 
by the number of missing people. The " little 
flock" will hear the shepherd's voice and follow 
Him. Search will be made for them, and they 
cannot be found. The consternation, which such 
disappearances must cause, will soon cease to control 
the minds of those, who shall be "left." Everything 
on earth will speedily become as commonplace as 
before. Government will not be changed. The 
courts will still decree judgment among men. The 
churches will not be emptied. Pews and pulpits 
will be filled with those who, " having the form of 
godliness, deny the power thereof."! All these 
things will soon be sifted by the great tribulation, 
but at the departure of the saints, godless and 

* Luke xvii., 34, 35. t 2 Tim. iii.. 5. 



38 



HE WILL COME. 



anxious men will quickly be consoled, and begin to 
laugh at their own fears. What a change will it be 
for those who are taken ! 

On the eve of His death, our Lord was most ex- 
plicit in the promise of his re-appearance to His 
disciples. Over and over again, he told them, "I 
go away," but He always added the refrain, " I 
will come again."* That they certainly understood 
him to pledge his veracity to a literal, personal, 
visible and special return to them is evidenced by 
the whole course of their conversation. Had they 
been wrong in their construction of His words it 
would seem to be fatal to His trustworthiness that 
he did not correct their error. But He continued 
to repeat the promise. We may with absolute con- 
fidence anticipate the realization of this appearing, 
and claim, as the warrant of our expectation, the 
words of Him, who could not lie : " Ji it were not 
so, I would have told you."| 

From our Lord's conversation with Peter and 
John on the shore of the lake of (xennesaret, we 
have a right to infer that the disciples had an unde- 
fined hope that it might be possible to evade death. 

* John xiv., 3. t ib., 2. 



THE MAN FROM THE GLORY. 



39 



At least this became the current report about John. 
It was a misapprehension of the words of our Lord, 
which suggested this rumor. But the explanation, for 
which it furnished the occasion, is of great value in 
support of the views we have been advancing. Peter 
had been called to follow Christ, and now, turning 
with over-curiosity towards John, inquired : " Lord, 
and what shall this man do ? Jesus saith unto him, 
If I will that he tarry till I come, what is that to 
thee? follow thou Me. Then went this saying 
abroad among the brethren, that that disciple 
should not die : yet Jesus said not unto him, He 
shall not die ; but, If I will that he tarry till I come, 
what is that to thee % "* It" certainly is demonstrated 
by this passage that neither His own resurrection 
nor our death is a fulfilment of His promise : " I 
will come again." Faith accepts His saying as 
faithful, and hope looks out through the lattice of 
the Word and whispers to heaven the unceasing 
prayer : " Come, Lord Jesus, come quickly." 
Doubt of snch a promise is denial of Christ. 

Let us not dare, as Christians, to rest in a literal 
redemption by a literal first coming of Jesus Christ, 

* John xxi., 21-23. 



40 BE WILL COME. 

our Saviour, if we deny an equally literal second 
coming of the same Lord to claim His own. 
The whole mission of Christ stands upon the 
same principle. It is no more carnal to expect 
His return in the flesh, than it is to believe that He 
first came to be the Redeemer of the world. If this 
Bible is not a book of riddles, to be made that which 
man's ingenuity can force it to mean, then both of 
these appearings of Jesus Christ are similar in many 
of their conditions, and are to be accepted by an 
equally undoubting faith. As the cross testifies of 
the condemnation and the rescue of sinners, so does 
the coming crown of Christ assure the comfortable 
submission and the future coronation of saints. The 
cross stands first for the sinner, as his constant object 
of search. The crown stands first for the saint, as 
his continual meditation and anticipation. 

The Church has waited long 

Her absent Lord to see ; 
And still in-loueliness she waits, 

A friendless stranger she. 
Age after age has gone, 

Sun after sun has set, 
And still in weeds of widowhood 

She weeps a mourner yet. 

Come, then, Lord Jesus, come. 



THE MAX FROM THE GLORY. 41 



Saint after saint on earth 

Has lived, and loved, and died ; 
And as they left us one by one, 

We laid them side by side ; 
We laid them down to sleep, 

But not in hope forlorn ; 
W T e laid them but to ripen there, 

Till the last glorious morn. 

Come, then, Lord Jesus, come ! 

We long to hear Thy voice, 

To see Thee face to face, 
To share Thy crown and glory then, 

As now we share Thy grace. 
Should not the loving bride 

Th 3 absent bridegroom mourn ? 
Should she not wear the weeds of grief 

Until the Lord return ? 

Come, then, Lord Jesus, come! 

The whole creation groans, 

And waits to hear that voice, 
That shall restore her comeliness, 

And make her wastes rejoice. 
Come, Lord, and wipe away 

The curse, the sin, the stain, 
And make this blighted world of ours 

Thine own fair world again. 

Come, then, Lord Jesus, come ! 

H. Bonar. 



IV. 

The Glorious Man. 



He shall send Jesus Christ, which before was preached unto you : whom 
the heaven must receive until the times of restitution of all things, 
which God hath spoken by the mouth of all his holy prophets since the 
world began.— Acts, iii., 20, 21. 



■^jg E, for whom we wait, is " the same 





also that ascended up far above all 
heavens, that He might till [fulfil] 
all things."* Though mortal eye could 
not follow Him as He passed through the 
pathway of the firmament, yet faith has 
found Him and worshipped Him in His exalted 
state. These words of God are lenses adjusted to 
the gaze of faith, which make very present " the 
substance of things hoped f or."f Through them we 
look and "see the heavens opened, and the Son of 

* Eph. iv., 10. t Heb. xi., 1. 



THE GLOBIOUS MAN. 43 

man standing on the right hand of God."* No 
exclusive vision is this. It is the common portion 
of all, who "be risen with Christ" to "seek those 
things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the 
right hand of God."f His continued advocacy and 
intercession are of imperative necessity to the be- 
liever. They rank with the functions of His 
mediatorial office finished on earth. For all short- 
comings, infirmities and sorrows they provide a safe 
and satisfying refuge. When St. Paul would give 
utterance to the warrants of his own freedom from 
condemnation, he combines the present occupation 
of Christ with the merit of His finished work. " It 
is Christ that died, yea, rather, that is risen again, 
who is even at the right hand of God, who also 
maketh intercession for us. "J These are the four 
reasons, each equally significant and saving, for the 
hope that is in him. 

As the high priest of Israel entered within 
the veil, bearing the blood from the sacrifice and 
the incense from the altar, so did Jesus Christ 
ascend "into heaven itself, now to appear in the 
presence of God for us."§ Aaron within was no 

*Acts vii., 56. tColos. iii., 1. tRom. viii., 34. §Heb. ix., 24. 



1 






44 HE WILL COME. 




different from Aaron without the veil. Jesus on 
high is unaltered from that He was below. Still 
does He wear the form of the servant. There is a 
man in the highest heaven. Though gloriously 
changed, since in the garden His body was embalmed 
and buried, yet does He retain the marks of His 
suffering. He is " the Lamb as it had been slain in 
the midst of the throne." The same heart beats in 
His glorified body. The same truly human sympa- 
thy times its throbs. The same eternal love is its 
unchanging law. The character He bore on earth 
is His character forever. Though glory now trans- 
figures His person, though angels and arch-angels 
await His bidding, though all the redeemed from 
earth follow in His train whithersoever He goeth, 
while high heaven unceasingly echoes with His 
praise, yet has He respect unto the least and most 
laggard of those loved ones, whom He has still in 
the world. What a marvel is this ! In that exalted 
state the Glorious Man, Jesus the Son of God and 
God the Son, is touched with a feeling of our in- 
firmities in remembrance of His own times of 
earthly trial. His sympathy and strength are not 
restrained. And then every prayer we present, 









THE GLORIOUS MAN. 45 

whether in solitary communion or when surrounded 
by the saints, in times of despondency or seasons of 
joy, for our own many wants or those of others in 
need, the Glorious Man always hears. For this 
very purpose has He ascended into heaven now to 
appear in the presence of God for us. Can you not 
trust your advocate ? He prayed for Saint Peter 
that his faith might not fail. Even so He prays for 
us — the same priest, the same prayer. While among 
men He was a King in disguise. "Art thou a king, 
then," were words of tau.it, but told a tremendous 
truth. Then His reign was spiritual. It came not 
by observation. The sceptre that He swayed was one 
of grace and not of sense. How many were brought 
into captivity to His crown ! "All power is given 
to Me in heaven and on earth," were among His 
valedictory words as He ascended to the throne 
above the skies. There sits the King of saints. 
From thence shall He return. Meanwhile our 
loyalty is cherished towards an absent Sovereign, 
who has left His viceroy in the church. The 
Holy Ghost is His Vicar, to whom all submission 
is rendered and from whom all precepts are re- 
ceived "for Christ's sake." The spirit of the 



46 HE WILL COME. 

departing believer hastes by death to " be present 
with the Lord." "Whilst the body, bruised and 
broken, must sleep beneath the sod, the soul is waft- 
ed to be with Christ in paradise. Wherever Christ 
is this day, there are all those, who have outrun us 
in the race and entered into rest. We know not 
where that station is, and we do not ask to know. 
It is sufficient that He has gone to the glory, of which 
He emptied Himself before He came to this world. 

Wheresoever, in space or state, that abiding of 
Christ now is, thence shall that identical Glorious 
Man, who ascended, return to the earth upon which 
He once walked. "Our conversation is in heaven; 
from whence also we look for the Saviour, the 
Lord Jesus Christ : Who shall change our vile 
body [our body of humiliation], that it may be 
fashioned like unto His glorious body, according to 
the working whereby He is able even to subdue all 
things unto Himself." * He shall return from the 
heaven to which He has ascended, from the right 
hand of the majesty on high. 

When He cometh again He will wear the same 
sorrow-marked humanity with which He disappeared. 

* PML iii., 20, 21. 



THE GLORIOUS MAN. 47 

" They shall look upon Me whom they have pierced, 
and they shall mourn." * Our Lord returned from 
the sepulchre with peculiar signs of His identity 
to demonstrate to His disciples that it was even He 
Himself, who had gained the victory over death; 
but more than this, as a preparation for the exal- 
f tation, which was to come. Why did He not lay 
aside the spear-mark and the wounds of the nails 
in His hands ? He changed multitudes of facts 
in the grave. Why did He reserve these ? To 
reassure His disciples in their earthly life ? Cer- 
tainly. But also to mark Him as the One who was 
crucified, and was risen, when His faithful disci- 
ples should welcome Him from the skies. The 
piercing shall be the proof that it is the very Christ. 
When He came from the grave it was with a body 
bearing the evidences of His sorrow and His tri- 
umph ; but unlike the body of His death, for He 
came and went more as a phantom than a man, and 
yet He was a man, for He ate witli them, talked 
with them, and entered into their experiences as one 
of themselves. 

This glorified body is to be the standard, to which 

* Zech. xii., 10. 



48 HE WILL COME. 

all the bodies of believers are to be conformed in 
the day of Christ's coming. TTith this glorious assur- 
ance we lay in the grave those that we love and lose. 
It is the blessed hope, with which we look forward 
to the welcome of Christ on His personal return. 
" AVe shall be like Him." <; As we have borne 
the image of the earthy, we shall also bear the 
image of the heavenly/' Howsoever scarred in 
struggle, bowed with burdens, furrowed with fears 
and infirmities, in that day the face and form of the 
believer shall receive a marvellous renovation and 
matchless beauty. The Passion of Jesus, and the 
power of the Holy Ghost, shall be beyond all con- 
troversy justified in the " glorious church, not hav- 
ing spot or wrinkle, or any such thing ; but that it 
should be holy and without blemish.'' * The measure 
of the Master's love, and gift of Himself, shall have 
an unconceived interpretation when, as believers, we 
who " have been planted together in the likeness of 
His death, shall be, also, in the likeness of His resur- 
rection." j 

The identity of the Lord is clearly established 
by the description of His session now, from whence 

*Eph. v., 21. tEom. vL, 5. 



THE GLORIOUS MAN. 49 

He shall return ; of the body in which He will 
appear ; of the spear-mark, which certifies its same- 
ness ; of the office which He maintains in the skies ; 
and of the personal relation in which He stands to 
the people, whom He has loved. The kingdom of 
Jesus on this earth demands the same presence 'that 
the redemption of Jesus required. What joyful 
tidings are these, to those who are looking for that 
blessed hope ! How they swell the heart of him 
who loves the Lord Jesus Christ ! The place at 
His feet for which Mary longed shall be ours ! 
The same Christ in the same body, in the same tri- 
umph over death and life, w T e are to welcome ! 

What words of comfort are these to the suffering, 
the sorrowing, and the striving saint ! Draw aside 
the curtains in the chamber of sickness ; let this sun- 
shine scatter its shades. In His own bottle doth 
the Master gather every submissive mourner's tears. 
With the promise of His personal coming does He 
paint the rainbow upon them, as in hours of desola- 
tion and despondency they stream from our eyes. 
The worker for Jesus girds himself for new endeavor 
and daring as in the Word he catches the footfall of 
the returning Lord. One sight of The Glorious 



50 HE WILL COME. 

Man will compensate all the toils of the longest life. 
To hear Him say " Well done " will empty memory 
of all the complaints and curses of men. How 
much, rather, shall we rejoice when in a moment we 
shall be " clothed upon with our house which is from 
heaven." Fellow-watcher " faint not ;" though our 
outward man perish, yet the inward man is renewed 
day by day. "For our light affliction, which is but 
for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding 
and eternal weight of glory. While we look not at 
the things which are seen, but at the things which 
are not seen; for the things which are seen are 
temporal; but the things which are not seen are 
eternal."* 

* 2 Cor. iv., 17, IS. 

Now our heavenly Aaron enters, 

With His blood within the veil ; 
Joshua now is come to Canaan, 

And the kings before Him quail ; 
Now He plants the tribes of Israel 

In their promised resting-place; 
Now our great Elijah offers 

Double portion of His grace. 

Thou hast raised our human nature 
On the clouds to God's right hand; 

There to sit in heavenly places, 
There with Him in glory stand ; 



THE GLORIOVS MAN. 



51 



Jesus reigns, adored "by angels; 

Man with God is on the throne ; 
Mighty Lord, in thine Ascension 

We by faith behold our own. 

Lift us up from earth to heaven, 

Give us wings of faith and love, 
Gales of holy aspirations 

Wafting us to realms above ; 
That, with hearts and minds uplifted, 

We with Christ our Lord may dwell, 
When He sits enthroned in glory 

In the heavenly citadel. 

So at last, when He appeareth, 

We from out our graves may spring, 
With oar youth renewed like eagles, 

Floating round our heavenly King, 
Caught up on the clouds of Heaven, 

And may meet Him in the air, 
Rise to realms where He is reigning, 

And may reign for evermore. 

Chk. Wordsworth, D.D. 



V. 

The Glory Revealed in U s. 



Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first resurrection : on such 
the second death hath no power, but they shall be priests of God and of 
Christ, and shall reign with Him a thousand years.— Revelation xx., 6. 




HE God-Man shall, at His coming for 
His saints, be the cause of marvellous 
changes. Glory shall be upon the 
raves of those "who sleep in Jesus," 
the bodies of living believers shall be 
fitted for ascension. These two facts in the 
future are unmistakeable coincidents of His coming. 

It will not be denied by any student of God's 
Word that " the dead shall hear the voice of the Son 
of God : and they that hear shall live."* A literal 



* John v., 25. 



THE GLORY REVEALED IX US. 53 

recall of the bodies buried beneath the earth or the 
waves is anticipated by all, who accept the scrip- 
tures as their rule of faith. As in the early experi- 
ence of the twelve, so now may Christians be 
troubled at times by rationalistic doubts. Even the 
doctrine of the Cross and the Open Sepulchre of 
Jesus excited suspicions. The disciples "understood 
none of these things : and this saying was hid from 
them, neither knew they the things which were 
spoken."* When faith surrendered to reason they 
were enveloped with the darkness of doubt. In 
Athens, when the philosophers, who listened to 
Paul, " heard of the resurrection of the dead, some 
mocked : and others said, we will hear thee again of 
this matter ;"| but " certain men clave unto him 
and believed." Men are similarly affected by the 
declaration of this truth in our day. We, who 
recognize in the scriptures a revelation of our Lord's 
purposes, decline to enter into a discussion about the 
probability or possibility of the resurrection of the 
dead. It is enough for us that He hath promised it, 
and in His own restoration from the grave has given 
us both the pledge and the pattern of our rising 

* Luke xviii., 34. t Acts xvii., 32. 



54 HE WILL COME. 

again. The Sadducean error of saying " that there 
is no resurrection/'* and the cognate effort to spirit- 
ualize this assurance so as to apply it to the renewal 
of souls and not of bodies, are in words denounced 
by the apostle. They, who so render the literal 
teaching of the Word of God, are disciples of 
" HymeiiEeus and Philetus ; who, concerning the 
truth, have erred, saying that the resurrection is 
past already; and overthrow the faith of some."t 
, This is one of the sublimest mysteries of the Gos- 
pel. Nature is full of its analogies. The successive 
stages of life suggest instructive illustrations of its 
character. The doctrine itself rests on the testimony 
of God alone. Without His word, though we pos- 
sessed " all knowledge, " yet would the wisest man 
be ignorant of the reserved privilege of the race. 
In the same manner, and by the same method, are 
we taught the work of Jesus Christ in perfecting 
eternal salvation for believers, and the fact of a 
future life for their bodies, summoned from the 
grave. Because God has said so, and for no other 
reason, do we believe " that there shall be a resur- 
rection of the dead, both of the just and unjust."; 

* Matthew xxii., 23. t 2 Timothy ii., 17, IS. t Acts xxiv., 15. 



THE GLORY REVEALED IN US. 55 

Upon the same Divine testimony must we rely for 
information about the character of this recall of the 
dead. So far as I have been able to discern, there 
are only two passages of the New Testament, which 
refer to the condition of the bodies of unbelievers, 
when released from the bands of the grave. The 
burden of scripture is the glorification of the saints. 
There is scarcely limit to the texts which contain 
instruction on this entrancing topic. The believer's 
body " is sown in corruption ; it is raised in incor- 
ruption : it is sown in dishonor ; it is raised in glory: 
it is sown in weakness ; it is raised in power : it is 
sown a natural body ; it is raised a spiritual body."* 
The kingdom of God is not a disembodied state. 
God will care for its habitation by those who have 
" borne the imnge of the earthy," but now by His 
all-healing touch are made to " bear the image of 
the heavenly." Thus His church shall be recovered 
from every defect. " Flesh and blood cannot inherit 
the kingdom of God ; neither doth corruption inherit 
incorruption. Behold, I shew .you a mystery ; we 
shall not all sleep (die) but we shall all be changed. "f 
Both the buried and the busy saints shall receive 

*1 Cor. xv., 42-4. t Ibid, 50, 51. 



56 HE WILL COME. 

this bodily transformation. " For this corruptible 
must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on 
immortality.'-* The apostle confines the comfort of 
this promise to those who are " in Christ." It is 
all too manifest that no inclusion of unbelievers was 
intended. In an earlier chapter of the same epistle 
Paul teaches us, " God hath both raised up the 
Lord, and will also, raise up us by His own power."! 
The character and connection of the resurrection is 
thus defined : " Know ye not that your bodies are 
the members of Christ ? "{ The Head having been 
brought from the grave and enthroned in glory, it is 
inconceivable that the members should be left in 
corruption. 

This personal relation of believers to Jesus is the 
reason and definition of their resurrection. Our 
bodies are sanctified by the indwelling of the Holy 
Ghost. Thus they become and are maintained as "the 
temple of God." In life and death they are equally 
covered by the cloud of His covenant care. " If 
any man defile (destroy) the temple of God, him 
shall God destroy : for the temple of God is holy, 
which temple ye are."§ Death is the enemy of God's 

* 1 Cor. xv., 53. 1 1 Cor. vi., 14. t Ibid, 15. § 1 Cor. iii.. IT. 



THE GLORY REVEALED LK US. 57 

temples, and is under this ban. He is as the king 
of Babylon, which cast down the temple at Jerusa- 
lem, made with hands. A like victory over his 
power and pride is promised. Solomon constructed, 
Nebuchadnezzar ruined, and Zerubbabel restored 
the shrine of God on Mount Zion. Even so the 
Holy Ghost renewed the soul and body of the be- 
liever to be the dwelling-place of God ; death may 
dissolve it, but a greater than Solomon or Zerubba- 
bel shall "in that day " re-erect it for " an habita- 
tion of God by the Spirit." " The glory of this latter 
house shall be greater than of the former, saith the 
Lord of Hosts."* 

Let no believer fear death. Besides the many 
assurances of succor which spring from the work 
of Jesus, as his substitute and Saviour, he has 
the consolation of a great argument. The premi- 
ses are in his present experience. The irresistible 
conclusion voices itself in the glad challenge — 
" Thanks be to God, who giveth us the victory." 
The sum of the statement is in the words, " If the 
Spirit of Him that raised up Jesus from the dead 
dwell in you, He that raised up Christ from the 



* Ilaggai ii., 9. 



58 HE WILL COME. 

dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by His 
Spirit that dwelleth in you."* 

The resurrection of the bodies of believers will 
antedate by a thousand years or more the summons 
to " the rest of the dead."f TTe, who belong to 
Christ, are to enjoy the rapture to the skies and the 
reign upon earth, whilst the bodies of those who 
have denied Him still remain mingled with their 
kindred dust. So surpassing are the privileges of 
this first resurrection of believers, that it is called in 
comparison with the return to judgment, of those 
who have been godless in life, " a better resurrec- 
tion." J It would seem that our Lord and His apos- 
tles had been particularly careful to guard our minds 
from confusion in this matter. Let us give their 
full weight to words, which were spoken with so 
much discrimination. " The dead in Christ shall 
rise first/' § When \ " Every man in his own 
order ; Christ the first fruits ; afterwards they that 
are Christ's at His coming."|| The wave-offering 
of a risen Saviour's body was carried into the tem- 
ple, more than eighteen hundred years ago. The 

* Romans viii., 2. t Revel, xx., 5. t Hebrews xi., 35. § 1 Thess. iv., 16. 
11 1 Cor. xv., 23. 



THE GLORY REVEALED LN US. 



59 



harvest, represented by this sheaf of the first fruits, 
is next to be reaped. " Then comet] 1 the end."* 
Has this resurrection a distinctly-applied name ? 
" Thou shalt be recompensed at the resurrection of 
the just."f What shall be the condition of those 
who partake in this privilege ? " They which shall 
be accounted worthy to obtain that world, and the 
resurrection from the dead, neither marry, nor are 
given in marriage : neither can they die any more : 
for they are equal unto the angels ; and are the 
children of God, being the children of the resur- 
rection. 3 ^ Is a desire to be numbered with this 
company permissible ? Paul counted "all things 
but loss .... that I may know Him and the power of 
His resurrection, and the fellowship of His suffer- 
ings, being made conformable unto His death ; if 
by any means I might attain unto the resurrection 
of (from or from among) the dead."§ Have we 
any earnests of this event to guide us in our 
expectation ? When Jesus died " the graves were 
opened ; and many bodies of the saints which 
slept arose, and came out of the graves after 
His resurrection, and went into the holy city 

* 1 Cor. xv., 24. t Luke xiv., 14. t Luke xx., 35, 36. § Phil, iii., 8, 10, 11. 



60 



BE WILL COME. 



i 



and appeared unto many."* These were the 
first trophies of our Lord's triumph and doubtless 
were transferred with Him to the Paradise of 
God. Have we any words of promise, which 
warrant our personal faith and hope of this glori- 
ous fact ? Xo less than four times in a single and 
short discourse did our Lord repeat an assurance, 
which the weakest in the faith may appreciate : 
" This is the Lather's will which hath sent me, that 
of all which He hath given me I should lose noth- 
ing, but should raise it up again at the last day. 
And this is the will of Him that sent me, that every 
one which seeth the Son and believeth on Him, may 
have everlasting life : and I will raise him up at the 
last day. Iso man can come to Me except the 
Lather which hath sent Me draw him : and I will raise 
him up at the last day. "Whoso eateth My flesh and 
drinketh My blood, hath eternal life ; and I will 
raise him up at the last day."f The words of Jesus 
embody " the Lather's will." The acceptance and 
enjoyment of this unparalleled promise is a matter 
of obedience and loyalty to God. No child of God 
can safely distrust the language or suffer any one, 

* Matt, xxvii., 52, 53. t John vi., 39, 40. 44. 54. 



THE GLORY REVEALED IN US. 61 

who misuses the Master's teaching, to disturb the 
complacent repose of His life. " The last day" 
is the expression everywhere used by our Lord to 
assure His " glorious appearing." The time of the 
resurrection of the believers is thus defined beyond 
all dispute and cavil. 

When that day shall dawn redemption will be 
perfected. We are ransomed now, but our deliver- 
ance is yet incomplete. Even those who are in 
Paradise have not received the full fruition of their 
hopes. Their spirits have indeed entered into re- 
freshment and joy, but their bodies still sleep. They 
wait in rest, and we watch while at work, for the 
same event. " These all, having obtained a good re- 
port through faith, received not the promise ; God 
having provided some better thing for us, that they 
without us should not be made perfect."* Towards 
the coming of Christ for His saints all the patri- 
archs, prophets, apostles, martyrs and untitled souls, 
comprising the " great multitude " now with Christ, 
are looking with heavenly longing. The saints on 
earth find their communion with those " to glory 
gone" in this blessed hope. There is no division of 

* Hebrews xi., 39, 40. 



62 HE WILL COME. 

interest in all the host of God's elect. Both living- 
saints and dead part alike. Neither can have the 
advantage over the other. Their common corona- 
tion shall come when they shall "see the Son of 
Man coming in a cloud with power and great glory. 
And when these things begin to come to pass, then 
look up, and lift up your heads; for your redemption 
draweth nigh." * All inanimate and irrational crea- 
tures share in the unrest of those still bound by the 
limitations of a fallen nature. In that day " the 
creature itself also shall be delivered from the bond- 
age of corruption into the glorious liberty of the 
children of God. For we know that the whole crea- 
tion groaneth and travaileth in pain together until 
now. And not only they, but ourselves also, which 
have the first-fruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves 
groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, 
to wit — the redemption of our body." Then shall 
our forms possess the power of a sinless and glorified 
manhood. " They shall mount up with wings as 
eagles ; they shall run and not be weary, and they 
shall walk and not faint." f Then shall the intel- 
lect be as quick as intuition, faith shall surrender to 

* Luke xxi., 27, 2S. t Is. xl., 31. 









• 


THE GLORY REVEALED IN US. 63 




sight, hope shall be lost in fruition, and love shall 
be purified of all imperfection. So prepared by 
resurrection, at the coming of the Lord, shall be- 
lievers be presented by Christ " to Himself a 
glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle, or any 
such thing ; but that it should be holy and without 
blemish."* These shall come with Christ to recog- 
nize and partake in the residence and reign of the 
Lord upon the earth. " When Christ, who is our 
life, shall appear, then shall ye also appear with 
Him in glory." f 

Chrysostom in one of his sermons uses as an 
illustration' of the truth, upon which we have been 
meditating, a description of an old house with shat- 
tered roof and broken windows and unstable pin- 
ning. " The landlord comes to the tenant and bids 
him move. I am going to take this old house down ; 
I mean to build another in its stead upon the same 
foundation. You shall see in it the likeness and 
identity of the old. I wish you to move to my 
house, for you will not like to see this home of 
so many years dismantled and dissolved. You 
shall return again to abide in the restored house 

* Eph. v., 27. t Colos. iii., 4. 









64 HE WILL COME. 

as your unquestioned home forever." He therefore 
removes the tenant to his own abode, whilst in the 
place of that broken and shattered tenement he 
builds a house, whose walls are marble, whose gates 
are agate, whose windows are clear as crystal, while 
diamonds and all precious gems stud its pavement as 
elements of ornament. So graciously, does he de- 
clare, the Lord God takes down the house of this 
body that He may restore it for the future indwell 
ing of the one who awaits His coming. Our present 
love of our bodies is a prophecy of their immortality 
when clothed upon with glory. Death is dreaded 
because it divests men of that which they have so 
carefully cherished. The believer knows full well 
that it is but for a short time, that he shall be " ab- 
sent from the body." Valiantly he cries in the face 
of death, " Rejoice not against me, O, mine enemy : 
when I fall, I shall arise ; when I sit in darkness, 
the Lord shall be a light unto me."* 

* Micah vii., 8. 

I call the world's Redeemer mine ; 

He lives, who died for me, I know ; 
Who bought my soul with blood divine, 

Jesus shall reappear below ; 
Stand, in that dreadful day unknown, 
And fix on earth His heavenly throne. 



THE GLORY REVEALED IN US. 



65 



In this identic body, I, 

With eyes of flesh refined, restored, 
Shall see that self-same Saviour nigh, 

See for myself my smiling Lord, 
See with ineffable delight ; 
Nor faint to bear the glorious sight. 

Then let the worms demand their prey, 
The greedy grave my reins consume ; 

With joy I drop my mouldering clay, 
And rest till my Redeemer come. 

On Christ my life, in death rely, 

Secure that I can never die. 

Chas. Wesley. 



VI. 

The Glorious Rapture, 



By faith Enoch was translated that he should not see death ; and was 
not found, because God had translated him.— Hebrews xi., 5. 

And it came to pass, as they still went on and talked, that, behold, 
there appeared a chariot of fire, and horses of fire, and parted them both 
asunder ; and Elijah went up by a whirlwind into heaven.— 2 Kings ii., 11. 

Her child was caught up unto God, and to His throne.— Rev, xii., 5. 




SIP 



HERE have been exceptions to the law 
of death. Itself, the apparently inev- 
W ^® itable experience of our race, the 
thronged highway to the unchanging 
world, the inexorable enemy of fallen nature, 
frtSSi^) still death has twice been evaded, once over- 
come, and shall be triumphed over by a great multi- 
tude at the coming of Him, who " hath the keys of 
death and Hades." Enoch and Elijah entered heaven 
through the air, and not by the way of the grave. 




THE GLORIOUS RAPTURE, 



67 



Jesus, the Divine Man, after He had bowed His 
head and given up His spirit to this sovereign and 
tyrant, broke the seal upon the sepulchre and through 
the pathway of stars ascended to His throne. And 
we, too, "which are alive and remain, shall be caught 
up together with them in the clouds, to meet the 
Lord in the air." These parallel facts are estab- 
lished by the same testimony. Either all or none 
are to be believed. They must stand or fall to- 
gether. 

The time has passed for the appeal of the apostle 
before Agrippa : " Why should it be thought incred- 
ible with you that God should raise the dead ?" 
The universal church receives and rejoices in the 
assurance. But is it contained in plainer scriptures 
than those, which teach the rapture of glory to be 
ministered to living believers, when the Lord comes 
for His saints ? The impossibility of such transla- 
tion is answered by history. Its improbability is 
met by repeated promises. Indeed, after the Lord's 
ascension, had nothing more been said it would have 
been the instinctive expectation of His disciples to 
part from earth by the same path. It must have 
puzzled them, indeed, that He " had abolished death 











68 HE WILL COME. 




and brought life and immortality to light," and 
yet that they must die. How curiously, and with 
how many doubting thoughts must they have looked 
upon the pale face of the first believer who, after 
the disappearance of Jesus, " fell on sleep." Had 
not the Master said, "Whosoever liveth and be- 
lieveth in me shall never die."* And yet death 
had despoiled their hope ! 

In the interval between His resurrection and ascen- 
sion they knew of but one gate to the unseen 
world. They must all die. Strangely enough 
sounded the words spoken by the Master about 
John, "If I will that he tarry till I come." t 
They were like another Jacob's ladder from earth 
to heaven. The brethren questioned among them- 
selves what this saying meant, until by frequent 
repetition the rumor gained currency that John 
" should never die." The evangelist is. careful, when 
relating the conversation, to add, " Yet Jesus said 
not unto him, He shall not die ; but, If I will that he 
tarry till I come, what is that to thee ?" Whilst the 
Lord remained with them there could have been no 
conflict between the expectation of death and the 

* John xL, 26. t John xxi., 22. 









THE GLORIOUS BAP TUBE. 69 

anticipation of His reappearance. " All the fathers 
fell on sleep," and the children would fare no better. 
The promise of His coming again was held in abey- 
ance by the comfort of His risen presence. 

But so soon as He was parted from them on Olivet, 
and ascended through the air, this hope naturally as- 
sumed its primal place. Death no longer was to be the 
rule, but the exception. Each day they awoke with 
the thought, 6 will He come for us before night i 5 
and they rested during the hours of darkness in the 
sweet hope that " at midnight, or at the cock-crow- 
ing, or in the morning,"* they might be awakened 
for their heavenward flight. This was the attitude 
of mind maintained by the early church. They 
thought little about death, but " looked for and 
hastened unto the coming of the Lord." 

The apostles, in all the epistles, occupied much 
space with instructions, which harmonize this appar- 
ent contradiction between the words of the Lord 
and the facts of life. They gave renewed emphasis 
to " the heavenly hope" of a deathless translation, 
but, at the same time, they showed the related office 
of death. Among the possessions of believers are 

* Mark xiii., 35. 



70 HE WILL COME, 

numbered: " life or death."* They were counseled 
to maintain a sturdy indifference, and, after the ex- 
ample of Paul, to profess : " in nothing I shall be 
ashamed, but that with all boldness, as always, so 
now also Christ shall be magnified in my body, 
whether it be by life or by death. For to me to live 
is Christ, and to die is gain."f The glory of Jesus 
was recognized in that He "hath abolished death and 
hath brought life and immortality to light through 
the gospel. "J The present influence of His finished 
work was identified : " that through death He might 
destroy him that had the power of death, that is, 
the devil ; and deliver them who through fear of 
death were all their lifetime subject to bondage." § 
The glorious period was clearly predicted, when 
" shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, 
Death is swallowed up in victory. "|| Then will the 
anthem roll over the empty graves and through the 
thronged sky : " O death, where is thy sting ? O 
grave, where is thy victory ? Thanks be • to God 
which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus 
Christ. "*,[ The student of scripture will be surprised 



*1 Cor. iii., 22. t Phil, i., 20, 21. i 2 Tim. L, 10. § Heb. ii., 14, 15. II 1 Cor. 
XV., 54. If Ibid, 55-57. 



THE GLOBIOUS RAPTURE, 71 

on testing the statement, to discover how few, 
comparatively, are the references in the epistles to 
physical death, and how universally by the apostles 
it is represented in a secondary and temporary char- 
acter. A careful examination of the passages ar- 
ranged in the concordance under the word "Death," 
will convince a candid mind that the Spirit of God 
gives far less prominence to this gloomy fact, than 
do modern preachers and teachers, and absolutely no 
place to it as a Christian motive. Thus taught, be- 
lievers, buoyed by a certain confidence that they 
should share the final rapture with all saints, unmur- 
muringly suffered death's defeat.- To the last how 
would they hope to be spared the humiliation. Like 
their Master would they cry to the Father with anxi- 
ety, and yet with submission : " If it be possible, 
let this cup pass from me ! nevertheless, not as I 
will, but as thou wilt. O my Father, if this cup may 
not pass away from me, except I drink it, thy will be 
done." * "With Paul, in the dissolution of the body 
by pain, would they groan : " Not for that we would 
be unclothed, but clothed upon, that mortality might 
be swallowed up of life." f And yet, when disap- 

* Matt, xxvi., 39, 42. t 2 Cor. v., 4. 



72 HE WILL COME. 

pointed in their desire, death was disarmed of all its 
darkness and terrors. They " being full of the Holy 
Ghost, looked up steadfastly into heaven and saw 
the glory of God, and Jesus standing on the right 
hand of God."* His attitude prepared Him for 
and assured His promised descent. Their last prayer 
to this coming Christ was often, "Lord Jesus, re- 
ceive my spirit ;" and when they had said this they 
fell asleep. 

The apostle Peter knew, before the ascension of Je- 
sus, that he was to die. The Lord had said by the side 
of the Sea of Galilee. "Verily, verily, I say unto thee, 
when thou wast young, thou girdedst thyself, and 
walkedest whither thou wouldest : but when thou 
shalt be old, thou shalt stretch forth thy hands, and 
another shalt gird thee, and carry thee whither thou 
wouldest not. This spake He, signifying by what 
death he should glorify God." This prediction was 
present with him when writing his epistles. It gives 
a special character to all his references to the Lord's 
appearing. The coming of the Master for His dis- 
ciples and friends, is scarcely alluded to. He speaks 
of that " end of all things," and " the day of the 

* Acts vii., 55. 



THE GLORIOUS RAPTURE. 73 

Lord," which are identified throughout scripture as 
the return of the King and Judge, surrounded by 
His glorified people. In this he would share with 
them. " The everlasting kingdom of our Lord and 
Saviour Jesus Christ," was to be their common in- 
heritance, but they might enter into it by different 
gates. His own mode of departure was determined. 
In reference to theirs he says not a word. By which- 
ever path they might come, his consuming care was 
that to the Christians for whom he wrote: " An en- 
trance shall be ministered unto you abundantly." 
To accomplish this end he declared : " I think it 
meet, as long as I am in this tabernacle, to stir you 
up, by putting you in remembrance ; knowing that 
shortly I must put off this my tabernacle, even as 
our Lord Jesus hath showed me. Moreover, I will 
endeavor that ye may be able after my decease, to 
have these things always in remembrance." * From 
his own history and his words it is evident that Peter 
was an exception to the rule of hope in the apostolic 
church. He was the complete contrast of Simeon, 
to whom " it was revealed by the Holy Ghost, that 
he should not see death before he had seen the 

* 2 Peter i., 12-15. 



74 HE WILL COME. 

Lord's Christ." Peter found " the way of the cross 
the way of light." The one received Christ in the 
early, as will many in a future generation ; the other 
went to Christ through the grave, as have the mul- 
titudes of believers in past generations. 

When he opens the epistles of Paul, the student 
of scripture is arrested by the change in style and 
expression, so soon as the appearing of Christ for 
His people becomes the topic of the apostle's teach- 
ing. The writer no longer employs the second or 
third person of the pronoun. He classes himself 
with those who wait for the Saviour. His hope 
clings to the promise, and longs for its fulfilment. 
"For this we say unto you by the word of the 
Lord, that we which are alive, and remain unto the 
coming of the Lord, shall not prevent (precede) 
them which are asleep. For the Lord Himself shall 
descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of 
the archangel, and with the trump of God : and the 
dead in Christ shall rise first : then we, which are 
alive and remain, shall be caught up together with 
them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air : and 
so shall we ever be with the Lord."* This is a most 

* 1 Thess. iv., 15-17. 



THE GLORIOUS RAPTURE. 75 

impressive passage of the Word of God. Not only 
does it demonstrate the apostle's own expectation, 
which we now know to have been disappointed, but 
it presents in compact compass the circumstances, 
which are to combine in the glory of the Lord's 
coming. The dead are to have the preference, if 
such there can be in the event of a "moment." 
Then the living believers are by die transform- 
ing nearness of Jesus, to " be changed." * Lost 
shall be all the limitations of this flesh. Time and 
space are nought to the spiritual body. " This cor- 
ruptible shall have put on incorruption. This mor- 
tal shall have put on immortality."! Fashioned by 
secret and mysterious forces, will these forms of 
ours have become " like unto His glorious body." 
Thus released from the laws of this lower life, shall 
the saints ascend " in clouds " to meet the Lord. 
They shall form the clouds. There is no definite 
particle in the Greek. All the shadows that shall 
fall that day on the earth will be the darkness cast 
by the disappearance of those who have been " lights 
in the world." 

With w T hat hallelujahs will they salute the King ! 

* 1 Cor. xv., 51. t Ibid, 54. 



76 HE WILL COME. 

What festal joy will be theirs ! Now they ascend 
through realms of space to that heavenly city. 
" Lift up your heads, O ye gates, and be ye lift 
up, ye everlasting doors, and the King of Glory 
shall come in ! " This is their triumphant cry. 
With* what acclaim shall unf alien angels welcome 
their coming. The cherubim and seraphim shall 
respond in praise. The harpers on their well-tuned, 
heavenly harps, shall repeat the melody. What 
a chorus of singers from heaven and from earth 
shall celebrate the triumph of that day ! Imagina- 
tion fails to attain the far-off echoes of the song. 
The heart is heavy with the " home-sickness " of 
heaven. Hope still pleads the promise, " I come 
quickly." When shall we appear before our God ? 
Above all other things, do the saints desire thus 
" to enter into the joy of your\Lord." 

I love yon pale blue sky ; it is the floor 
Of that glad home where I shall shortly be ; 

A home from which I shall go out no more ; 
From toil and grief aud vanity set free. 

I gaze upon yon everlasting arch, 

Up which the bright stars wander, as they shine ; 
And as I mark them in their nightly march, 

I think how soon that journey shall" be mine ! 



THE GLORIOUS BAPTUEE. 



77 



Yon silver drift of silent cloud, far up 

In the still lieaveu — through you my pathway lies ; 
Yon rugged mountain -peak — how soon your top 

Shall I behold beneath me, as I rise ! 

Not many more of life's slow-pacing hours, 
Shaded with sorrow's melancholy hue ; — 

Oh, what a glad ascending shall be ours, 
Oh, what a pathway up yon starry blue ! 

A journey like Elijah's, swift and bright, 
Caught gently upward to an early croTvn, 

In heaven's own chariot of unblazing light, 
With death untasted and the grave unknown. 

H. Bonar. 



VII. 

A Glimpse of the Glory. 



We have not followed cunningly devised fables, when we made known 
unto you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but were eye 
witnesses of His majesty. For He received from God the Father Tionor 
and glory, when there came such a voice to Him from the excellent glory, 
This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. And this voice which 
came from heaven we heard, when we were with Him in the holy mount.— 
2 Peter i., 16-18. 




HE Transfiguration of Jesus was a 
prophecy in act. It is incoinprehen- 
T^f ^ sible and without comfort, to those 
who do not study it with the language of 
St. Peter as its commentary. The very 
^Sjj^) general neglect of this most unusual and 
unique incident in our Lord's earthly life is a sign 
of the indifference, with which His "glorious ap- 
pearing" is regarded. Let us look carefully into 
its connection and circumstances, that we may more 



A GLIMPSE OF THE GLORY. 79 

intelligently "wait" for the Lord. "The more 
earnest heed " we give to this fact, which is without 
parallel in His days as "the man of sorrows," the 
more clearly shall we see the " blessed hope " to be 
justified by the words of the Master Himself. 

The record of this occurrence is made by three of 
the four evangelists. Their agreement in the recital 
of its details is exact. There are no discrepancies 
nor inconsistencies which need to be harmonized. 
Moreover it is introduced by each of them in con- 
nection with the same prediction. This is suggestive 
and significant. The Master was speaking to His 
disciples in warning against the imprudence of ex- 
changing their souls for the world. He enforces 
His appeal with the promise: "The Son of Man 
shall come in the glory of His Father, with His 
angels, and then He shall reward every man accord- 
ing to his works. Verily, I say unto you, There be 
some standing here, which shall not taste of death, 
till they see the Son of Man coming in His kingdom. 
"And after six days Jesus taketh Peter, James, and 
J ohn, his brother, and bringeth them up into an high 
mountain apart, and was transfigured before them."* 

*Matt. xvi., 27, 28 ; xvii., 1, 2. 



SO HE WILL COME. 

The pertinency of the prophecy as a motive to 
unworldliriess, we shall consider in another place. 
Just now we fasten our attention upon its history. 
This prediction was altogether new truth to the 
twelve. They were not as yet accustomed to its 
after and often repetitions. On His first unveil- 
ing of the future, the Lord adopted the double 
method of the Old Testament. He employed both 
voice and vision. By their consenting testimony 
He impressed, upon the minds of His disciples, the 
conviction that He was other than He seemed, and 
all that He claimed to be. As in the education of 
early faith, types and sacrifices were related to literal 
promise and prophecy, as now the example of Jesus 
is an illustration and enforcement of His precepts, 
so in this revelation of Himself and His purposes 
did our Lord first speak plainly ; and then, " after 
six days,'' repeat His teaching in action. He gave 
them a glimpse of the glory that was to follow. 

The charge, with which He sealed their lips after 
they had beheld His glory, is full of meaning in its 
connection. " As they came down from the moun- 
tain, Jesus charged them, saying, Tell the vision to no 
man, until the Son of Man be risen again from the 



A GLIMPSE OF THE GLORY. 81 

dead." * Such discoveries of Himself were not for 
the world, nor yet for Judas. Misapprehensions and 
misconstructions would certainly attend the circu- 
lation of the report. Besides, as the substitute for 
sinners, He must assume the rejection that belonged 
to them, and not the reverence which was right- 
fully His own. After He has proved Himself, by 
taking again His life, a trophy from the power of 
the grave, to be a sufficient ransom and Redeemer, 
there was no further need of restraint. Then were 
His foes helpless to seize Him or subvert His mis- 
sion. His great work had been well done. The 
three witnesses of His glory might safely, and to 
edification, tell all they had seen. Their testimony 
would explain His oft-repeated promise of return, 
and enhance the joy of His companionship in His 
risen life. 

That the disciples understood Him to assert, by 
this concurrent teaching, His coming " to restore 
the kingdom to Israel," and to fulfil the Old Testa- 
ment prophecies of a Glorious King, is evidenced 
by the question, which they asked as soon as they 
were forbidden to make known the vision. We can 

* Matt, xvii., 9. 



82 



RE WILL COME. 



well imagine the current of their thoughts. Had 
not Malachi written : " Behold, I will send my mes- 
senger, and he shall prepare the way before me : 
and the Lord, whom ye seek, shall suddenly come to 
his temple, even the messenger of the covenant, 
whom ye delight in : behold, he shall come, saith 
the Lord of hosts. But who may abide the day of 
his coming ? and who shall stand when he appear- 
eth ? for he is like a refiner's fire and like fuller's 
soap. And he shall sit as a refiner and purifier of 
silver."* This must be none other than He who is 
to come. But where is the " messenger ? " They 
bring their trouble to the Master, saying : " Why 
then say the scribes that Elias must first come." f 
This question has no conceivable meaning, unless 
the Transfiguration had been interpreted by them 
as an earnest and f oregleam of the u glorious ap- 
pearing." That their thoughts were much confused 
was most natural. What could they comprehend 
about the " come in the glory of His Father, with 
His angels," when immediately He re-assumed His 
marred features and weary form. To difficulties of 
faith, such as this, the Master adapted and addressed 

* Malachi iii., 1-3. t Matt, xvii., 10. 



A GLIMPSE OF THE GLORY. 83 

His answer : " I say unto you, that Elias is come 
already, and they knew him not, but have done unto 
him whatsoever they listed. Likewise shall also the 
Son of man suffer of them."* This reply, which 
is given with greater fulness by Saint Mark in the 
parallel passage, instructed them in the order of His 
revelations. He traced for them the successive events 
in His manifestation. First came John the Baptist, 
in the spirit and power of Elias. Then appeared 
the Son of Man to '"suffer," "be set at nought," 
and " be risen from the dead." Afterwards the Son 
of man " shall come in His own glory, and in His 
Father's, and of the holy angels." f In this state- 
ment He sketched the outline of all His relations 
to believers, from the presence of His herald until 
He should be recognized on His earthly throne. 

St. Peter clearly refers to this incident and inter- 
view in the passage, with which we have introduced 
our present meditation. He claims the consent of 
both St. James and St. John in the application of 
the vision to " the power and coming of our Lord 
Jesus Christ." They were associated as " eye-wit- 
nesses of His majesty." They together heard the 

* Matt, xvii., 12. t Luke ix., 26. 



84 HE WILL COME. 

" voice to Him from the excellent glory." In the 
absence of denial, we have a right to infer an unan- 
imity of testimony from those, who " were with Him 
in the holy mount." Because of this prefiguring 
purpose, the mount became to them, as did Horeb 
to Moses, "holy ground." No other association 
witli place is so designated throughout the New 
Testament. Not Bethlehem, nor Bethany, neither 
Gethsemane nor Golgotha attained such a title of 
sanctity. And for the manifest reason that these 
and all other scenes were connected with His humili- 
ation as the mediator for man. The ground of the 
garden, which drank in the drops of gore that fell 
from the agonized face of the Man of Sorrows ; the 
place of the skull, upon which flowed the blood and 
water from the pierced side of the Sufferer, who 
" saved others but Himself could not save ; " these 
may be reverenced by superstition, but they are not 
sanctified in the words of the Spirit. That unnam- 
ed and unknown mountain has this solitary recog- 
nition. Thereon stood the feet of Him who, in the 
guise of His imperial presence, for a brief period 
was transfigured before them. The parenthesis, of 
His subjection to the curse and triumph ever the 



A GLIMPSE OF THE GLORY. 85 

law as man's substitute, of His ascension to the 
heavens as the saints' fore-runner and intercessor, 
was passed over, and the majesty which is to follow 
was manifested. Well might those who were with 
Him, when recalling the surpassing grandeur of 
their experience, say : " We beheld His glory, the 
glory as of the Only Begotten of the Father."* 

An examination of the details of this vision will 
establish still further this interpretation of its pur- 
pose. We now know far more of its meaning than 
could the disciples have, at the time, conceived. 
Jesus has now " received from God the Father honor 
and glory," and has "passed into the heavens." 
The contradiction between His human and trans- 
formed appearance does not perplex us. We look 
back upon the scene, with His exaltation in mind, 
as a talisman to explain the symbol. The Glorious 
Man is none other than He who was the peasant of 
Galilee and the reputed malefactor of Calvary. 
When He comes again this will be the confessed 
connection of His triumph with His trial. The 
brightness, which shall halo His head, will glorify the 
marks of the crown of thorns. The Lion of the 

* John i., 14. 



86 EE WILL COME. 

tribe of Juclah is " the Lamb as it bad been slain." 
Thus taught by the Spirit, we rejoice in the recog- 
nition of the identity of the Xazarene and Him " who 
was transfigured before them." Would you see the 
Lord as He will be when He cometh for His saints, 
then dismiss from thought all other descriptions of 
Him, contained in the gospels, and concentrate the 
powers of your mind and imagination upon the com- 
prehension and realization of this graphic word- 
picture: " His face did shine as the sun and His 
raiment was white as the light," * " so as no fuller 
on earth can white them ; " f even " as He prayed 
the fashion of His countenance was altered, and His 
raiment was white and glistering." % What shall 
be the beauty of the accepting smile of the Master 
when thus His features are the mirror of the inac- 
cessible glory ? With what power of constraint and 
with what precious commendation shall those lips, 
on which "grace was poured," then speak the words 
that now it is not possible for man to hear or bear ? 
O gentle eyes of glory! O gracious lips of the 
King ! How do Thy loved ones wait to receive the 
glance of their Beloved and to hear His voice ! With 

* Matt, xvii., 2. t Mark ix., 3. t Luke ix., 29. 



A GLIMPSE OF THE GLORY. 



67 



pride and praise shall the Bride claim this Man from 
the Glory, " This is my beloved, and this is my 
friend, O daughters of Jerusalem."* 

As upon " the holy mount " " there appeared 
unto them Moses and Elias talking with Him," f so 
shall the saints of all dispensations be in communion 
when He cometh again. From the busy activity or 
midnight sleep of the city had the three disciples 
been taken up into the high mountain to be with 
Jesus. The multitude still dwelt below in uncon- 
scious indifference to the vision above them. It 
neither disturbed nor improved them. " Even so 
shall it be in the days of the coming of the Son of 
Man." The few that retain faith shall be summoned 
by that Master, in whom they have confided. Not 
all the professed disciples shall be caught up to meet 
the Lord. The " shout " % will not be heard by 
the world. The apostle is careful to use a Greek 
word, which limits the audience. It is the cry of a 
commander to his soldiers, or of a captain to his 
sailors. To those who submit themselves, and to 
none other, shall the " voice of the archangel " come. 
Moses will be with them, and all the " dead in 

* Songs of Sol. v., 16. t Matt, xvii., 3. 1 1 Thess. iv., 16. 



88 HE WILL COME. 

Christ" restored from the grave. Elias, too, the 
pattern and pledge of the deathless saints, has his 
place in the fellowship. All generations, all dis- 
pensations, all experiences shall " enter into the joy 
of the Lord" with equal acceptance, if agreed in 
submission to the Lord Christ. TThat is lacking 
fully to illustrate and impress the predicted circum- 
stances of the coming of Christ for His people ? 
Does not the vision marvellously make palpable the 
promise ? 

The occupation " in glory " is intimated with not 
less pointedness. " There talked with Him two men, 
which were Moses and Elias ; who appeared in 
glory, and spake of His decease which He should 
accomplish at Jerusalem."* The attainment of 
their final glorification was still contingent. The 
death of Jesus would secure the substance of their 
hope. With what power must the Master have 
developed His purpose to these saints of the ages. 
Until the cloud hid them from the disciples' com- 
munion this was the burden of their conversation. 
May we not believe that this is still the wonder of 
heaven? The " spirits of just men " rejoice in that 

* Luke ix., 30, 31. 



A GLIMPSE OF THE GLORY. 89 

finished salvation, which has wrought their rest. 
Every song in the book of Revelation has this trans- 
cendent refrain. And when Jesus comes this shall 
be our all-engaging talk. What multitudes of ques- 
tions shall we refer to the Master ! What light will 
shine from His presence to satisfy our curious doubts ! 
What depths of wisdom and knowledge shall be re- 
vealed,when the better Joseph makes Himself knowm 
to His brethren. But the key of all shall be " His 
decease." The Divine Tragedy shall be then seen to 
be the Divinest Philosophy. The precious blood ! 
What shall compare with this as a topic of speech 
or of song, an incentive to worship or to work, an 
inspiration of love or of holy life in the presence of 
the King. Let us on earth anticipate the carol of 
the saints, and with melody in our hearts together 
praise " Him that loved us and washed us from our 
sins in His own blood, and hath made us kings and 
priests unto God and His Father ; to Him be glory 
and dominion forever and ever, Amen."* 

* Revelation i., 5, 6. 

I journey through a desert drear and wild, 
Yet is ray heart by such sweet thoughts beguiled 
Of Him ou whom I lean, my strength and stay, 
I cau forget the sorrows of the way. 



90 



HE WILL COME. 



Thoughts of His glory — on the cross I gaze, 
And there behold its sad, yet healing rays; 
Beacon of hope, which, lifted up ou high, 
Illumes with heavenly light the tear-dimm'd eye. 

Thoughts of His coming — for that joyful day 
Iu patient hope I watch, and wait, and pray ; 
The dawn draws nigh, the midnight shadows flee, 
Ah, what a sunrise will that advent be ! 

Thus while I journey on, my Lord to meet, 
My thoughts and meditations are so sweet 
Of Him on whom I lean, my strength, my stay, 
I can forget the sorrows of the way. 

H. Bonar. 



VIII. 

Before the Mail in the Glory. 



Therefore judge nothing before the time, until the Lord come, who both 
will bring to light the hidden things of darkness, and will make manifest 
the counsels of the hearts : and then shall every man have praise of God. 
—1 Corinthians iv., 5. 



FTER the resurrection, and the rap- 
ture, the saints shall " ever be with 
R ^ the Lord."* All the tribulations, which 
shall distress the nations, subsequent to 



the time of their departure, will be un- 
known to them. They will be as far re- 
moved from the experience of sorrowful things, as 
are the angels of Grod in this dispensation, or the 
glorified body of Jesus since the ascension. When 
they shall return with the Master, it will be to share 




1 1 Thess. iv., 17. 



92 EE WILL COME. 

His reism. In the kingdom of Christ re-established 
among men they are to be assessors of His govern- 
ment. " To him that overcometh will I grant to sit 
with Me in My throne, even as I also overcame, 
and am set down with My Father in His throne,"* 
were words spoken from the glory. To this condi- 
tion of rest, rule and rejoicing are they transferred 
at the coming of Christ for His saints. That day 
He shall fulfil His own prayer : " I will that they 
also, whom Thou hast given Me, be with Me where I 
am ; that they may behold My glory, which Thou 
hast given Me."f The purposes of permitted temp- 
tation and trials will have been accomplished. The 
refiner shall withdraw the crucible from the fire, 
for in the purified silver will He perceive the reflec- 
tion of His own image. " And God shall wipe 
away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be 
no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither 
shall there be any more pain: for the former things 
are passed away."J 

Thither ascending in heart and mind we are to 
meditate, so far as the Word of God will warrant, upon 
the experiences of the saints with* the Man in the 

* Revel, iii., 21. t John xvii., 24. t Revel, xxi., 4. 



BEFORE THE MAN IN THE GLORY. 93 

Glory. It would be easy to give flight to imagina- 
tion and anticipate somewhat of the ecstatic bliss, 
which shall certainly be ours, " who are kept by the 
power of God through faith unto salvation, ready to 
be revealed in the last time." * But it will be more 
profitable to our meetness for " the inheritance of 
the saints in light,"f if we limit our thoughts to the 
language of the Spirit. Not fancy, but truth is 
sanctifying. The facts are to be glorious enough 
without suborning in their aid a system of allegory. 
No shadowy portion is that which is promised to 
those, who " shall walk with Me in white: for they 
are worthy. "J No need is 'there of subtle invention 
to torture from the Bible a spiritualized meaning. 
In plain phrase and connected recital has the Spirit 
of God shown us in the scriptures " the things that 
shall be hereafter." 

Justification is judgment in one's favor. To him, 
who receiveth this grace, there can never come the 
shadow of condemnation. He is acquitted before 
the law and the government of God. Thenceforth 
he is not " under the law, but under grace." And 
glory is only grafce developed. The one is the flower 

*1 Peter i., 5. t Colos. l, 12. t Revel, iii., 4. 



94 HE WILL COME. 

in bud. The other is the blossom in perfection. 
The one is the grey dawn. The other is the glorious 
day. The life that is passed " under grace " cannot 
fail of glory. " Therefore," wrote St. Paul, " being 
justified by faith, we have peace with God through 
our Lord Jesus Christ: By whom also we have access 
by faith into this grace wherein we stand, and rejoice 
in hope of the glory of God."* In the matter of sin 
the saint can never again be arraigned. His all-pre- 
vailing substitute Saviour has undertaken that for 
him. By His own offering of Himself , and His con- 
tinual intercession in our behalf , our Master will care 
for the salvation and security of him, who confides 
in His all-sufficient merits. With boldness may such 
a justified soul say, "I know whom I have believed, 
and am persuaded that He is able to keep that which 
I have committed unto Him against that day."f That 
one act of faith, claiming the righteousness and 
blood of Jesus as an honorable answer to the pre- 
cepts and penalties of an infracted law, will be rati- 
fied by the resurrection and rapture. This, and only 
this salvation by grace, is the reason of the believer's 
glorification. 

* Rom. v., 1, 2. t 2 Tim. i., 12. 



BEFORE THE MAN IN THE GLORY. 95 

Sin having been adjudged on 'the Cross, it re- 
mains that the saint's services should be scrutinized 
before " he shall receive a reward. 5 '* For this, "we 
must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ; 
that every one may receive the things done in his 
body, according to that he hath done, whether it be 
good or bad."f The saints in Corinth were thus 
warned that the actions of present life had inevitable 
influences upon the measure and station of their 
eternal condition. In almost identical words St. 
Paul wrote to the Roman Christians : " We shall 
all stand before the judgment seat of Christ. . . . 
every one of us shall give account of himself to 
Grod."{ The remembrance of this assize might well 
restrain the Christians of those days and our time 
from mutual judgment and contempt. This will be 
found to be the teaching of the context. The pur- 
pose of the revelation of Christ to His people is 
declared by the Lord Himself : " Behold, I come 
quickly ; and My reward is with Me, to give to every 
man according as his work shall be."|| The measure 
of our glory is determined before we die, or are 
" caught up." " Every man shall receive his own 

* 1 Cor. iii., 14, 1 2 Cor. v., 10. t Rom. xiv., 10, 12. II Revel, xx., 12. 

1 



96 HE WILL COME. 

reward, according to his own labor."* The differ- 
ences in duties are not graded. " He that planteth 
and he that watereth are one."f The reward will 
be assigned according to the motive and spirit of 
the service. 

When the saint's character and consecration are 
examined, though " every man shall have praise 
of God," yet must every man " suffer loss. "J "Who 
dare claim' that throughout life he has built on the 
foundation " that is laid, which is Jesus Christ," 
nothing but "gold, silver, precious stones ?"§ Have 
no " wood, hay, stubble," worthless and vain things, 
been worked into your character ? We shall then 
know the importance of wasted time. At what a 
ruinous price of earthly pleasures will we find that 
we have exchanged our ranks in glory. " Every 
man's work shall be made manifest." The day of 
secret thoughts and covered selfishness, disloyal to 
grace, will have passed. " The day shall declare it, 
because it shall be revealed by fire ; and the fire 
shall try every man's work of what sort it is. If 
any man's work abide which he hath built thereupon, 
he shall receive a reward. If any man's work shall 

* 1 Cor. iii., S. t Ibid, S. t IMd, 15. § Ibid, 11, 12. 



BEFORE THE MAN IN THE GLOEY. 97 

be burnt, lie shall suffer loss ; but lie himself shall 
be saved ; yet so as by fire." " The brightness of 
His coming,"* which shall afterwards consume the 
wicked, will in that day clear the saints of all 
taint of imperfection. They shall " have washed 
their robes, and made them white in the blood of 
the Lamb."f And now their results of life shall be 
sifted. That which is true and pure and good shall 
be accepted, whilst that which has been imperfect 
through selfishness and sin must be denied. 

What marvelous reversals of earthly judgments 
will the Master make ? The pomp and pride of 
profession will pass for nothing when searched by 
" the eyes that were as a flame of fire. "J The meek 
and lowly, who have learned of Him, will no longer 
be despised. Not the least of the saints' services 
shall be forgotten. "Whatsoever good thing any 
man doeth, the same shall he receive of the Lord."§ 
" Whosoever shall give to drink unto one of these 
little ones a cup of cold water only in the name of 
a disciple, verily I say unto you, he shall in no wise 
lose his reward,"! " Of the Lord ye shall receive 
the reward of the inheritance : for ye serve the 

*2 Thess. ii., 8. t Revel, vii., 14. tlb., i., 14. §Eph. vi., 8. II Matt, x., 42. 



HE WILL COME. 



Lord Christ."* "With these passages before him it 
will not be difficult for every believer to learn a 
lesson of solemn responsibility. The trifling and 
frivolity of earth clearly detract from the capacity 
and condition of glory. The Christian has only 
time to "lay up treasures in heaven."! To this he 
must dedicate every power of mind and soul and 
body. For this all days and institutions and asso- 
ciations are sanctified. In comparison with this, 
true prudence will permit no less worthy choice. 
" This is a faithful saying, and these things I will 
that thou affirm constantly, that they which have 
believed in God might be careful to maintain good 
works. These things are good and profitable unto 
men."{ 

* Colos. iil., 24. t Matt, vi., 20. t Titus iii., 8. 

Up, then, and linger not, thou saint of God, 
Fling from thy shoulders each impeding load; 
Be brave and wise, shake off earth's soil and sin, 
That with the Bridegroom thou may est enter in. 
Oh, watch and pray! 

Soon shall the voice be heard, " Behold, I come," 
That calls thee upward to thy glorious home, 

That bids thee leave these vales and take swift wing, 
To meet the hosts of thy descending King ; — 
And thou must rise ! 



BEFORE THE MAN IN THE GLORY. 99 



'Tis a thick throng of foes, afar and near ; 

All hell in front, a hating world in rear; 
Yet flee thou canst not, victory must be won, 
Ere fall the shadows of Time's setting sun ; — 
And thou must fight ! 

Gird on thy armor ; face each weaponed foe ; 

Deal, with the sword of heaven, the deadly blow; 
Forward, still forward in the fight; divine, 
Slack not the weapon till the field be thine. 
Win thou the crown. 

H Bonar. 



IX. 

The FotLr Crowns. 



In that day shall the Lord of hosts be for a crown of glory, and for a 
diadem of beauty, unto the residue of His people. — Isaiah xxviii., 5. 

Behold, I come quickly ; hold that fast which thou hast, that no man take 
thy crown.— Kev. iii., 11. 




HE saints win, but do not wear their 
crowns in this world. They are the 
heirs of an everlasting kingdom, but 
Te " under tutors and governors until the 
time appointed of the father." * The spirit 
the sonship in their hearts is the earnest 
of their future freedom and assured station. They 
have been indeed delivered from the Law with its 
complaints and curses. But their majority has not 
yet been attained. And until they come to full age 
in grace they must submit to " chastisement whereof 
all are partakers."! 



■ Gal. iv., 2. t Heb. xii. 3 S. 



THE FOUR CROWNS. 



101 



This paradox of their experience is repeatedly 
enforced and explained in God's Word. Assured 
of salvation they are still sifted by Satan. Blessed 
" with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places 
in Christ,"*- they are to "fear, lest, a promise 
being left us of entering into His rest, any of 
you should seem to come short of it."f They 
challenge " tribulation, or distress, or famine, or 
nakedness, or sword," -with the confident cry, 
" "Who shall separate us from the love of Christ ? "J 
whilst they " are in heaviness through manifold temp- 
tations : That the trial of your faith, being much more 
precious than of gold that perisheth, though it be tried 
with fire, might be found unto praise and honor and 
glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ." § They 
stand in a double relation, which solves the contra- 
diction. Like the mountains, their heads may be 
lifted up in the sunshine, while clouds and darkness 
with the voices of thunder and the fire of lightning 
may enshroud their lower life. It is enough for 
them that all is bright towards God. They are com- 
pensated and content in their controversy with the 
world lying in the wicked one, for daily are their 

*Eph. i., 3. t Heb. iv., 1. t Rom. viii., 35. § 1 Peter i., 6, 7. 



102 HE WILL COME. 

capacity for glory and their confidence in their God 
developed. They live two lives. Angels minister 
to them. Jesus ever is with them. The Heavenly 
Father careth for them. Their windows towards 
Jerusalem are flooded with light. What avails it 
that " the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, 
seeking whom he may devour ? "* Will not "the God 
of all grace, who hath called us unto His eternal glory 
by Christ Jesus, after that ye have suffered a while, 
make you perfect, stablish, strengthen, settle you ?"f 
Through trial and toil of every sort they strive with 
peace undisturbed and the presence of their Lord 
as their inspiration. " He hath said, I will never 
leave thee, nor forsake thee." J They rest upon the 
letter and live in the spirit of the promise. In the 
midst of labor they "find rest unto then 1 souls." § 
Indeed the believer regards all adverse things in his 
life as part of his legacy. They are the substance 
of his inheritance until the Lord comes. Half of 
all that he is to have is already his, and he patiently 
waits for that which is reserved. The Master said : 
" In the world ye shall have tribulation : but be of 
good cheer; I have overcome the world." || He 

*1 Peter v., S. tl&?tf,10. i Heb. xiii., 5. § Matt, xi., 29. I! John xvi., 33. 



THE FOUR CROWNS. 103 

watches all events in his own life and the world for 
the signs of His appearing to assert His control. 
Well does he know that the victory has already been 
attained ; but when will " He come whose right it 
is"* to reign and rule ? 

It was observed in the triumphal procession of 
one of the Roman emperors, that the laurel wreath 
of a certain warrior was carried by him on his arm. 
All other heads were encircled with this badge of 
victory. Who was this soldier of many battles, and 
why did he decline to conform to the custom of the 
time and throng ? To both questions he gave a sin- 
gle answer : " I am a Christian, and it does not be- 
come a Christian to wear his crown in this world." 
Right well had he received the spirit of his Master. 
He awaited the close of the last battle with sin and 
sorrow and death. That he should be a conqueror, 
and more than conqueror, through Him that had 
loved him, did not admit of doubt. But the coro- 
nation day could not come until all possible conflict 
was passed. Every believer shall then receive the 
prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus. f 
There is no contingency in his acceptance, if he has 

* Ezek. xxi., 27. tPhil. iii., 14. 



104 HE WILL COME. 

" put on Christ " and is "strong in the Lord." Hav- 
ing overcome all he shall certainly " stand."* His 
representative entrance into the places not made with 
hands, was secured by the ascension of his Lord. 
Even now, whilst battling with sin, his name is 
written in heaven. His citizenship is there. The 
title to " sit together in heavenly places in Christ 
Jesus," has no lien to be discharged, nor cloud upon 
its completeness to be dissipated. He only awaits the 
day when he may wear that, which has been won for 
him, and through him by the life of his Lord. 

The picture in the Interpreter's House, to which 
John Bunyan's dream conducts Christian, is a full 
illustration of the true relation of a believer's re- 
ward to his present service. It was the portrait of 
a very grave person, whose eyes were lifted up to 
heaven, the best of books in his hand, the law of 
truth was written upon his lips, the world was behind 
his back ; he stood as if he pleaded with men, and 
a crown of gold did hang over his head. His in- 
structor explained to the pilgrim the meaning of the 
several parts of the portrait, and in these words em- 
phasized the significance of those features, which 

*Eph. vi., 13. 



THE FOUR CROWNS. 105 

are in our present line of thought : " Whereas thou 
seest the world as cast behind him, and that a crown 
hangs over his head, that is to show thee, that slight- 
ing and despising the things that are present for the 
love that he hath to his Master's service, he is sure 
in the world that comes next, to have glory for his 
reward." His own it is already, if life be true, but 
the crown of the believer may not yet be claimed. 
Look up ! A crown hangs over thy head, held by 
the Saviour's hand. 

Before the judgment seat of Christ the crowns 
are to be assigned and assumed. When with Christ 
in the Glory, this will be the first privilege of the 
saints. To divest the promise of all material con- 
ceptions is most difficult, if not impossible. The 
Word of God so constantly uses the same expres- 
sion to convey the assurance of our recognition and 
reward, that there must be somewhat of abiding 
substance and external beauty added to the con- 
dition of the saints in that day. It is not "enough 
to interpret the word " crown" as the synonym 
of exaltation and triumph. All that it teaches, 
but infinitely more. The Master, in parable, 
associates it with becoming " ruler "over many 



106 HE WILL COME. 

things,"* "ruler over his household,"! " ruler over all 
his goods." J The apostle introduces the additional 
authority of judgment : " Do ye not know that the 
saints shall judge the world ? .... Know ye not that 
we shall judge angels ?"§ Even more than this is im- 
plied in the expression : " if we suffer, we shall also 
reign with Him." || St. John gathers all these forms of 
definition into one : " And hast made us unto our 
God kings and priests : and we shall reign on [over] 
the earth." TT Is it not the mind of the Spirit, in 
these and parallel passages, that glorified believers 
are to receive according to their capacity, and as a 
compensation for fidelity and diligence on earth, 
varying ranks of superior influence and control in 
the coming kingdom of Christ ? Of these stations, 
the crowns are the symbols to us now, as they will 
be the badges of our participation in royalty when 
the Divine decision upon our present submission and 
service shall be rendered. While we should be care- 
ful not to intrude into the unrevealed purposes of 
God, w x e cannot, with good conscience, treat indiffer- 
ently the promises He has plainly made. The scrip- 

* Matt, xxv., 23. t Ibid, xxiv., 45. t Ibid, 47. § 1 Cor. vt, 2, 3. II 2 Tim. ii., 
12. Revel, v., 10. 



THE FOUR CROWNS. 



107 



tures are far from silent about the crowns of the 
saints. A consideration of several passages will 
suffice to establish, or to disprove the principles al- 
ready in this meditation affirmed. 

It is most natural to turn to the Epistle of Works, 
when searching for the truth on this topic. St. 
James in words, which have caused his inspiration 
to be suspected by many over-zealous defenders of 
the office of faith, insists upon the necessity that the 
believer should justify his relation to God by an ac- 
cordant and consistent life among men. Without 
this, he pronounces faith to be fraudulent. But in 
such a sincere effort after godliness, he foresees 
the divers trials to which the believer will be sub- 
jected. He meets these foreboding anticipations 
with a choice benediction : " Blessed is the man that 
endureth temptation: for when he is tried, he shall 
receive the crown of life, which the Lord hath prom- 
ised to them that love Him."* This crown is to be 
the compensation for the sufferings of this present 
time. Though now "in deaths oft," the Christian 
is encouraged to endure all hardness, with the assur- 
ance of a suitable and satisfying reward when the 

* James i., 12. 





108 



HE WILL COME. 



Lord shall come. To the same effect are the words 
of our ascended Master, in His epistle to the church 
in Smyrna. They were exhorted to " fear none of 
those things which thou shalt suffer : behold, the 
devil shall cast some of you into prison, that ye may 
be tried ; and ye shall have tribulation ten days : be 
thou faithful unto death, and I will give thee a 
crown of life."* These parallel passages identify 
the class of persons, who may hope for the reward, 
to which they refer, and present the same promise 
to stimulate Christian endurance and forbearance. 
Whatsoever may be the present ]ot of those whom 
Satan torments ; though like Job they may be be- 
reft of possessions, children and health, there is a 
vista into the glory-land through the clouds that over- 
shadow them. Relying upon the sure word of their 
Master, they part cheerfully with all things that His 
providence claims, for they are confident of an en- 
during substance in the heavens. The sympathy 
and succor of an interceding Saviour are great con- 
solations in the loss of all things for Christ's sake, 
but they are not worthy to be compared with the 
glory of the crown of life, which shall recompense 

* Revel, ii., 10. 



THE FOUR CROWNS. 109 

the saint. Let the believer, whose " soul is among 
lions," keep clearly before his faith and hope this 
royal assurance. Thus sustained, shall he certainly 
endure unto the end and be saved from all his sor- 
rows. And since love is the constraint of patience, 
not only the action but its motive is recognized in the 
reward. This is the distinction : u Which the Lord 
hath promised to them that love Him." Not the 
mere sentiment, or emotion, which passes among men 
by the name of " love," but the uncomplaining and 
untiring submission, to which true love for Christ 
ever prompts, is to receive honor and glory in that 
day. Love delights in Jesus ; let it become pow- 
erful to restrain all rebellious thoughts and selfish 
discontent, whilst suffering under His hand. Only 
such love can wear " the crown of life." 

Life is not all endurance. The active side of our 
present duty is implied in very many of the figures, 
and expressed in the precepts, which form the body 
of all the epistles. The apostle Paul often urged 
the analogy between the soldier, the wrestler, or the 
runner, and the consecrated Christian. In connec- 
tion with one of his exhortations, having this posi- 
tive view of our conduct as its underlying principle, 



110 HE WILL COME. 

he wrote to the Corinthians : " Know ye not that 
they which run in a race run all, but one receiveth 
the prize ? So run, that ye may obtain. And every 
man that striveth for the mastery is temperate in all 
things. Now they do it to obtain a corruptible 
crown ; but we an incorruptible." * It must be man- 
ifest to the careful reader of this passage that a dif- 
ferent reward is pictured by these words, than that 
already presented as the recompense of the suffering 
saint. The Imperishable Crown is not the Crown of 
Life. Its recipients, title, and the reason of its 
bestowal are sharply contrasted with that, of which 
we have already written. Obedience, earnestness, 
diligence and zeal would appear to be the character- 
istics of those, who are to be thus distinguished. 
They have distanced competitors. They have over- 
come those, who have disputed their standing before 
God. Not flesh and blood, but principalities, powers, 
rulers of the darkness of this dispensation and spir- 
itual wickedness in high places have contested their 
prowess and power. There is nothing lacking in 
the language of the apostle to limit the direction of 
Christian life, which is by this insignia to be hon- 

* 1 Cor. ix., 24, 25. 



THE FOUR CROWNS. Ill 

ored. Then the word used to qualify the crown has 
a most significant application in other texts. In 
many passages it is rendered, by the translators of 
our version, " incorruptible ;"■* and in another it is 
introduced to describe the King eternal as also 
" immortal." Whatever it may express of glory, it 
is clear that the Imperishable Crown is to be distin- 
guished in nature and substance from the other gifts 
of the Lord our Judge. Moreover, it is conditioned 
upon the most opposite experience in this life to 
that of a tried and tempted believer, to whom the 
Crown of Life is to be awarded. He, who would 
obtain this prize must do somewhat as well as 
endure. The same believer may receive both marks 
of the Divine approval, but they will be awarded 
for different reasons. Moses in his self-denial and 
consecration to service is said to have " had respect 
unto the recompense of the reward."! Towards 
this he hasted in all his leadership until he entered 
into rest. The Imperishable Crown he has won. 
Its glory will be his when the Lord cometh. He 
awaits with all saints his coronation. Living believers 
in the struggles with Satan and sin have not yet 

* Rom. i., 23 ; 1 Cor. xv., 52 ; 1 Peter i., 4-23 ; iii., 4. t Heb. xi., 26. 



112 BE WILL COME, 

attained. It is theirs to strive for the mastery, stim- 
ulated by the assurance that the Master's hand now 
holds the reward which they seek. He will not 
withdraw the vision from him, who is " temperate in 
all things." 

The third crown promised by the Spirit is to be 
the badge of signal services rendered in the ministry 
of grace. It is called the Crown of Glory, in dis- 
tinction from the Crown of Life and the Imperish- 
able Crown. St. Peter presents it for the holy am- 
bition of the elders and witnesses to the sufferings 
of Christ. His exhortations to readiness of mind, 
unselfishness of will and humility of life are enforced 
by the promise : " When the chief Shepherd shall 
appear, ye shall receive a crown of glory that f adeth 
nof away." * Before every faithful pastor this mark 
of triumph is held aloft. It wins him away from 
the greed of " filthy lucre " and the overbearing 
tendency of " lords over God's heritage." It out- 
shines every attraction of the world, which would 
divert him from the singleness and sacrifices of his 
mission. What in comparison with this certain 
portion are the flattery of fame or the accumulation 

* 1 Peter v., 4. 



THE FO UR CR 0 WNS. 1 13 

of wealth ? Though on the prairie with the pioneers 
of civilization, or among the heathen in the far off 
lands, he is rich in the assured prospect of an un- 
fading exaltation when the chief Shepherd comes. 

However discouraged at times may become the 
soul- winner, lie can never know despondency, if his 
faith staggers not at this promise. Perseverance in 
seeking for the lost sheep becomes a settled habit of 
his life. It is a great dignity to plead with men " in 
Christ's stead," and it shall be discovered in that 
day to have been the more excellent way. For " they 
that be wise [teachers] shall shine as the brightness 
of the firmament ; and they that turn many to right- 
eousness, as the stars for ever and ever."* With 
the apostle he learns to recognize in every soul 
brought to the knowledge of Jesus through his 
ministry an earnest of his hope. The joy, which he 
experiences in reconciling men to God, through the 
preaching of the cross of Christ, is a foretaste of 
that, which awaits him in the skies. And the grat- 
itude of those, who return love for his labor, is a 
gleam from his crown. To himself, in times of 
meditation, and to those committed to his charge, 

* Daniel xii., 3. 



114 RE WILL COME. 

in seasons of communion, lie voices the testimony of 
St. Paul: "What is our hope, or joy, or crown of 
rejoicing ? Are not even ye in the presence of our 
Lord Jesus Christ at His coming ? For ye are our 
glory and joy."* 

The fourth and last crown named in the Word of 
God, is promised by the pen of St. Paul to " all 
them that love His appearing." Its possessor 
may, for his sufferings' sake, receive the Crown of 
Life, by his active obedience obtain the Imperish- 
able Crown, in recompense for unselfish service, be 
adorned by the chief Shepherd with the Crown of 
Glory, but in addition to these and because of his 
faithful waiting for Christ another distinction shall 
be added to these. Though in a prison with such 
an one as Paul the Aged, the believer may with con- 
fidence claim that " there is laid up for me a crown 
of righteousness, which the Lord, the Righteous 
Judge, shall give me at that day : and not to me 
only, but unto all them also that love His appear- 
ing."! How in appearance or preparation for con- 
trol this diadem may differ from those that have 
already engaged our meditation, is not taught us by 

* 1 Thess. ii., 19, 20. 1 2 Tim. iv., 8. 



THE FOUR CROWNS. 115 

the Spirit. This only we know, that the title which 
it bears, and the character of soul which it honors, 
do not occur in connection with the previously prom- 
ised crowns. It is solitary of its sort, and its assur- 
ance can only give comfort to a single class of 
Christians. If we so read the scriptures as to dis- 
cover no possibility of a speedy epiphany of Christ, 
then is this reserved reward unrelated to our des- 
tiny. It is and can be nothing to all those, who 
pass by the plain promises and precepts of the Lord 
and His apostles, which divide the present dispen- 
sation from the coming of the Glorious Man for His 
saints by the space of "a moment," or "the twink- 
ling of an eye." If the millennium is to precede 
the appearing, then why should we, who are at least 
a thousand years distant from the fulfilment of this 
promise, disturb our hearts by the thought that the 
" Lord doth come."* Far more rational is he w r ho 
says "in his heart, my Lord delayethHis coming."f 
There can be no desire for His appearing which de- 
serves to be crowned, unless there be a plain prom- 
ise of its nearness. It seems to us that this passage 
itself indirectly, and yet undeniably, contains a war- 

* Matt, xxiv., 42. t Ibid, 48. 



116 RE WILL COME. 

rant for the hope of those, who wait for the Lord. 
Be this as it may, why should the Christians, to 
whom this text is meaningless, seek to defraud those, 
who receive it literally, of the comfort and encour- 
agement that it contains. It is the pole-star of the 
scriptures to multitudes. How long the Lord Jesus 
may " tarry," we know not. At any hour there 
may be " a cry made, Behold, the bridegroom com- 
eth ; go ye out to meet Him/'* The watcher's soul 
is all alert for the summons. His loins are girt 
with truth. In his hand is the staff of the exodus. 
O, land of rest, how near thou art ! O, judgment- 
seat of Jesus, how thin are the clouds that veil 
thee ! Through the rifts of cloudland shine rays 
from this righteous crown." It is "laid up" for him, 
whose hope can never be satisfied with less than the 
presence of the King. 

It is said that in one of his historical naval en- 
gagements Lord Xelson perceived a ball of fire in 
the cloud of smoke, which shrouded the vessels of 
the enemy. So brilliant was the light that it left an 
abiding impression upon the retina of his eye. Look 
where he would thereafter this bright orb of fire was 

*Matt. xxv., 6. 



THE FOUR CROWNS. 



117 



a part of Lis vision. It was imprinted on every 
object and became a glorious medium, through which 
all things were perceived. The likeness to this is 
in the faith-outlook of the believer, who has received 
without doubting this word of promise. The glory 
of the Crown of Righteousness is an inseparable 
part of his present life. This sign of his recompense 
stands in relief on all the cloud-scenes of his strug- 
gle and toil. They are transfigured by it, and the 
crown is interpreted by them. 

The Master once wore a crown of thorns. But 
when He shall descend again the rainbow hues of 
many crowns will halo His head. It is sufficient for 
the disciple that he be as his Master. Welcome 
trial, toil, service and waiting ! Soon, who can say 
how soon, will these all give place to triumph and 
reward. And we shall, as those who have suffered 
and striven for His sake, cast our crowns before the 
Lamb as it had been slain. Now we can bring Him 
nothing but sin and sorrow. Then the voice of our 
recorded services, inspired by grace, shall eternally 
praise Him, saying, " Thou art worthy to receive 
glory and honor and power."* 

* Revel, iv., 11. 

I 



118 



HE WILL COME, 



Oh, what is this splendor that beams on me now, 
This beautiful sunrise that dawns on my soul, 

While faiut and far off land and sea lie below, 
Aud under my feet the huge golden clouds roll ? 

There are millions of saints in their ranks and degrees, 
And each with a beauty and crown of his own ; 

And there, far outnumbering the sands of the seas, 
The nine rings of Angels encircle the throne. 

And oh, if the exiles of earth could but win 

One sight of the beauty of Jesus above, 
From that hour they would cease to be able to sin, 

And earth would be heaven ; for heaven is love. 

But words may not tell of the Vision of Peace, 
With its worshipful seeming, its marvellous fires ; 

Where the soul is at large, where its sorrows all cease, 
And the gift has outbidden its boldest desires. 

Because I served Thee, were life's pleasures all lost ? 

Was it gloom, pain, or blood, that won heaven for me ? 
Oh, no ! one enjoyment alone could life boast, 

And that, dearest Lord ! was my service of Thee. 

I had hardly to give ; 'twas enough to receive, 
Only not to impede the sweet grace from above ; 

And, this first hour in heaven, I can hardly believe 
In so great a reward for so little a love. 

F. W. Fabeb; 











X. 

The Marriage of the Lamb. 

As the bridegroom rejoiceth over the bride, so shall thy God rejoice over 
thee.— Isaiah lxii., 5. 

He that hath the bride is the bridegroom.— John iii., 29. 

The kingdom of heaven is like unto a certain king, which made a mar- 
riage for his son.— Matt, xxii., 2. 

^v^l^Ql^ HE sequel of the Judgment Seat of 
Christ, and of the assignment of the 
^Qm\l crowns, will be the festal joy of those, 
^"mmv^Q) w -^ ose un i 011 with Christ by faith on earth 
\ wK W ^ ^ ien ^ e man ^ ested before the multitude 
of the heavenly host. The scene of this 
long foretold and figured transaction is to be the 
Glory-land. Freed from the fetters of the body of 
death, clothed upon with forms like to the Lord's 











120 HE WILL COME. 

glorious body, and transferred to the present resi- 
dence of Christ, the church will then be fully pre- 
pared for the realization of her deferred hope. Long 
since were believers " espoused to one husband " 
that grace might " present you as a chaste virgin to 
Christ."* In open acknowledgment we have pro- 
fessed this plighted relation before the world and 
claimed the promise : " Whosoever shall confess me 
before men, him shall the Son of Man also confess 
before the angels of God." Such true souls, at the 
period of which we write, will have concluded their 
" good profession before many witnesses," | and have 
been received % by the Christ Himself from the min- 
istry of the Holy Ghost. The scrutiny of their ser- 
vices is over. They wear the crowns that on earth 
they have won. And now heaven rings with ser- 
aphic song. Hark ! " I heard as it were the voice 
of a great multitude, and as the voice of many 
waters, and as the voice of mighty thunderings, say- 
ing, Alleluia ! for the Lord God omnipotent reign- 
eth. Let us be glad and rejoice, and give honor to 
Him : for the marriage of the Lamb is come, and 
His wife hath made herself ready." § This is the 

*2 Cor. xi., 2. 1 1 Tim. vi., 12. t John xiv., 3. § Revel, xix., 6, 7. 



THE MARRIAGE OF THE LAMB. 121 

indescribable portion of the saints until with the 
Lord they shall return to share His reign over the 
earth. For how long a space of time this privilege 
will continue we know not. But in relation and 
spirit it is the inauguration of the blessedness, which 
never again can be broken. Closer than present 
angelic life will be thereafter the union of believers, 
from the dispensation of Grace, with the royal Christ. 
" Forever with the Lord " is the sign-manual of 
their honor and glory. The marriage with the Lamb 
secures an inseparableness of presence and domin- 
ion. Impotent is human imagination to attain unto 
these exalted promises ! Let us keep the words hid 
in our hearts and " hope to the end for the grace 
that is to be brought unto you at the revelation of 
Jesus Christ." * 

The scriptures are very specific in the gradual 
development of the truths, which attain their fullest 
expression in " the marriage of the Lamb." This, 
on careful comparison of passages, will be found to 
be one of the organic ideas of the Bible. Its germ 
is in Genesis, the progress of its growth is to be 
traced in the words of prophets, psalmist and the 

* 1 Peter i., 13. 



122 HE WILL COME. 

Master Himself, the open interpretation of the mys- 
tery is discovered in the epistles, and then the Rev- 
elation of St. John, the Seer on Patmos, projects on 
the clouds of the future the picture of the truth in out- 
line and detail discriminating and satisfying. Like 
the tree of life, the cherubim and the blood of sac- 
rifice, this statement of the believer's unestrangeable 
union with the Lord both illustrates and vindicates, 
by its frequent occurrence, the unity and harmony 
of " all scripture." It will prove a most profitable 
exercise to search the pages of God's Word with 
these and other thoughts as key-truths. Much of 
Divine wisdom, now hidden to the superficial stu- 
dent, will reward such prayerful effort. More and 
more will the reader, who accepts this suggestion, 
marvel at the fulness and consent of the Divine tes- 
timony. 

Marriage was instituted by an act of ■ God. Its 
origin is the parallel of the establishment of the 
Sabbath and the appointment of sacrifice. The com- 
munications made by God to our first parents were 
a series of object-lessons, to which words of interpre- 
tation and exhortation were subsequently added. 
"The rest of God " from all His work which He had 



THE MARRIAGE OF THE LAMB. 123 

made introduced by a positive obligation the observ- 
ance of the seventh day, as holy time. The " coats 
of skins," with which the consciously naked sinners 
were Divinely clothed, were the types of a righteous- 
ness through the death of another, by which the 
guilty conscience should be covered. When it is 
remembered that until Noah built his altar on the 
top of Ararat no permission had been given to 
destroy animal life for food, and that immediately 
after the exclusion from Eden Abel " brought of 
the firstlings of his flock," and so " by faith offered 
unto God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain," the 
view just presented of the origin of sacrifice will be 
justified by the reader. The faith of Abel had for 
its object no words of promise except those contained 
in the curse upon the serpent. But the final triumph 
of the seed of the woman had been by the subsequent 
act of God illustrated in its method, and its resulting 
rest to the sinners. And now the repetition of this 
Divine action is recognized by faith as the accepta- 
ble form of worship, and the true mode of escape 
from the shame of guilt. Following this analogy, 
which would seem to be almost a law of early rev- 
elations, God by a miracle formed woman and 



124 BE WILL COME. 

brought her unto the man. Among all the creatures 
of His hand there had not been found an help meet 
for Adam. This strange and special formation of 
Eve, so contrasted to all other creative methods, 
naturally arrests our curiosity. There is a signifi- 
cance in the recorded circumstances, which will 
more plainly appear as we proceed in our meditation. 
Just now it must suffice to note the fact that the 
woman was made for the man, and given to him to be 
his wife by a Divine act. To the record of the inci- 
dent Moses appends the command, which is elsewhere 
repeated by our Lord : " Therefore shall a man leave 
his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his 
wife, and they shall be one flesh."* Monogamy has 
its law " from the beginning of the creation " in 
this Divine expedient. 

Passing over intervening passages, which will 
afterwards be found in harmony with the truth, we 
turn to the language of St. Paul in his epistle to 
the Ephesians, when exhorting the saints to the obser- 
vance of domestic relations. Once more we meet 
with the words just quoted from Moses and the 
Master. They serve to identify, beyond all dis- 

*Gen. ii., 2-i ; Mark x., 7. 



THE MARRIAGE OF THE LAMB. 125 

pute, his reference to marriage. He wrote of this 
social and civil relation, which had its rise in Eden. 
Of it he declared : " This is a great mystery : but I 
speak concerning Christ and the church."* Doubt- 
less the thought of the Spirit is that human 
marriage is a type, and was intended by God as a 
symbol, of the believer's oneness with his Lord. 
The body of true believers is comprehensively pre- 
sented as sustaining this choice relation, but it is 
equally the consciousness and distinction of each 
trusting soul. The perversion of this living figure 
of an everlasting fact is ranked among sins as sac- 
rilege itself. Love and reverence are to be the 
mutual duties of husband and w r ife, because these 
are the relative possessions of Christ and His own 
chosen people. The character and measure of these 
emotions are with equal distinctness defined. " Hus- 
bands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved 
the church, and gave Himself for it, that He might 
sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water 
by the word." The disinterestedness and self-sacri- 
fice of him, who in our Anglo-Saxon word is called 
the house-band, are to be derived from a remem- 

* Eph. v., 32. 



126 HE WILL COME. 

brance of the Lord's own love to him, and the fine- 
ness with which He suffered in his stead. The 
privilege is opened to him to represent in his home 
the life of the Lord Jesus in His church. Then 
with this precept is combined and correlated an- 
other : " Let the wife see that she reverence her 
husband." The believer's sweet submission of hon- 
orable fear before Jesus is made the outline, of 
the wife's relation to the husband. Blessed is that 
home, whose family circle an apostle could truly 
describe, as " the church that is in thy house ! " 
This is the Divine interpretation of the institution 
of marriage. It has a sacred mission in this dis- 
pensation. "When that Divine purpose has been 
fulfilled, it must pass away. " The children of the 
resurrection neither marry nor are given in mar- 
riage." To misuse the ordinance, whilst it is of au- 
thority for purposes of pride or appetite, is not less 
a sin than the desecration of the Sabbath or dis- 
honor done to the sacrifice of the Lord. For this 
reason, do the apostles by so many precepts, guard 
its purity and warn its perverters. How can the 
secret of this symbol be maintained if those so 
united have not like precious faith. " Be ye not 











THE MARRIAGE OF THE LAMB. 127 




unequally yoked together with unbelievers."* One 
of the infallible signs of the falling away from the 
faith in the latter times is "forbidding to marry."f 
In opposition to this tendency of thought and life 
the apostle wrote to the scattered Hebrew Christians, 
" Marriage is honorable in all,"f and then adds a 
reprobation of those who sin against it. So jeal- 
ously does the Spirit guard in the Word that com- 
munity of life, liberty and love which no law can 
enforce, but which true and congenial souls experi- 
ence in marriage. 

With this as our guiding thought, how plain 
and precious now becomes the language of the Song 
of Solomon. The descriptions and dialogues of the 
" spouse " and " the beloved " are full of delight. 
We take the place of the " loved one," and rejoice 
in the rapture which is hers, on hearing the voice of 
her friend. Joyously do we listen to the " beloved " 
as he tells the story of his satisfaction and admira- 
tion of her, who had but a few verses before be- 
wailed herself as so unworthy. Hardly can we stay 
ourselves from crying out, as we read the charge of 
the bride, the same confession : " 0, ye daughters of 

* 2 Cor. vi., 14. 1 1 Tim. iv,, 3. t Heb. xiii., 4. 









I: 



128 



HE WILL COME. 



Jerusalem, if ye find my beloved, tell him that I 
am sick of love." The beauty and sublimity of 
this Song of Songs are the peculiar property of the 
spiritually minded believer. All others pass with 
indifference or scorn these pages. But when the 
soul, united by trust to Jesus, turns to the book, " it 
is the voice of my beloved that knocketh, saying, 
Open to me, my sister, my love, my clove, my mi- 
defiled. . . .My beloved put in his hand by the hole 
of the door, and my bowels were moved for him. I 
rose up to open to my beloved : and my hands 
dropped with myrrh, and my fingers with sweet 
smelling myrrh, upon the handles of the lock."* 
There is a new sweetness in the spirit of him, who 
communes daily with Jesus in the Word as the hus- 
band of the soul. 

The union of the believer with the Lord is 
wrought by the Holy Ghost, " in the day of his 
espousals, and in the day of the gladness of 
his heart." f Thenceforth "he that is joined unto 
the Lord is one spirit." % "For we are members 
of His body, of His flesh, and of His bones."§ 
But the perfection of this bond is reserved until 

*JSong of Sol., v., 2, 4, 5. tIMd, iii., 11. 1 1 Cor. vi., IT. § Eph. v., 30. 



THE MARRIAGE OF THE LAMB. 129 

the Lord comes. So long as He is absent in His 
glorified body our joy of union cannot be full. His 
return from the skies will be the time when all 
that is taught by the type of marriage shall be 
realized. During these days of waiting the church 
is represented as w T idow T ed. She is really wedded, 
but in the separation from her Lord she wears 
the weeds of mourning. Her best days are to 
come. It is the sign of apostacy when a church 
or Christian refuses to recognize the sadness of this 
separation. " Hear now this, thou that art given 
to pleasures, that dwellest carelessly, that sayest 
in thine heart, I am, and none else besides me ; I 
shall not sit as a widow." * This is a most dangerous 
attitude of mind and life, for it is openly denounced 
by the Spirit of God. It is the error of Babylon, 
concerning which it is written : " How much she 
hath glorified herself, and lived deliciously, so much 
torment and sorrow give her : for she saith in her 
heart, I sit a queen, and am no widow, and shall 
see no sorrow."! AH spiritual pride and ecclesias- 
tical pretension, all worldly gratification, and way- 
ward self-seeking, all forgetfulness that the person 

* Isaiah xlvii., 8. t Revel, xviii., 7. 



130 



ME WILL COME. 



and presence of Jesus are needed for our perfec- 
tion, are sketched and condemned in these terrible 
words. The believer must separate himself from 
these thoughts and things which dishonor his Lord. 
To dally with such pleasures is spiritual adultery. 
The apostle does not hesitate so to describe those, 
who " know not that the friendship of the world is 
enmity with God." * 

To withdraw one's self from such associations is 
to fast. This duty of the Christian life has lost the 
place and prominence, which it possesses in the Word, 
and will regain in the purposes of those, who wait 
for the Lord. Its theory and relation are not left 
to ecclesiastical prescription. The Master solved all 
the questions, which the believer can ask about it, 
and in the explanation asserted His own marriage 
with His disciples. " Jesus said unto them, Can the 
children of the bridechamber fast while the bride- 
groom is with them ? As long as they have the 
bridegroom with them, they cannot fast. But the 
days will come, when the bridegroom shall be 
taken away from them, and then shall they fast 
in those days."f This is the title of the Old 

* James iv., 4. t Mark ii., 19, 20. 



THE MARRIAGE OF THE LAMB. 131 

Testament, which, on many occasions the Master 
applied to Himself, and on others received from 
those who addressed Him. Whilst in the company 
of His disciples there was neither method nor mo- 
tive for asceticism on their part. They were suffi- 
ciently separated from the world by His companion- 
ship. Moreover, how could they do other than re- 
joice in His presence? The bridegroom has been 
absent these eighteen hundred years and more from 
His church. This is the season to which so long 
ago He pointed with the injunction, " then shall 
they fast in those days." These two truths are 
again associated by Jesus in the parable of the ten 
virgins. The approach of the bridegroom is the 
expectation which inspired the virgin's service. 
" While the bridegroom tarried, they all slumbered 
and slept." But there was a distinction in even this 
common experience. It was made very plain 
when " there was a cry made, Behold, the bride- 
groom cometh ; go ye out to meet him." The 
watchers, who were true in their preparation, " went 
in with Him to the marriage," , whilst the others 
sought, when too late, to repair the insincerity of 
their professions. Such a withdrawal from the 



132 EE WILL COME. 

seductions of sin and pleasures is imperative if the 
believer is to welcome his Lord with full joy. The 
Bridegroom is on His return. His last message 
was, " Surely, 1 come quickly." The bride, all 
impatient for His appearing, looks through all 
the ordinances and scriptures with the heart-sick 
prayer, " Even so, come, Lord Jesus."* And to be 
consistent with her desire, she applies herself to 
careful, determined, watchful consecration in ser- 
vice, " for ye know neither the day nor the hour 
wherein the Son of man cometh."f 

It is worthy of note, in our meditation upon this 
truth, that the scene of our Lord's first miracle, while 
fulfilling His mission of redemption, was " a mar- 
riage in Cana of Galilee." % Bearing in mind the 
accumulated testimony of God's Word upon this 
Paradise type of His union with His church, this fact 
is more than a coincidence. It takes rank with such 
incidents as the Transfiguration, the washing of His 
disciples' feet, and the last supper. These were all 
parables in act, designed and adapted to impress 
with peculiar force His spoken words. They set 
forth the several parts of His one great plan of 

* Kev. xxii., 20. t Matt, xxv., 13. t John ii., 1. 



THE MARRIAGE OF THE LAMB. 133 

salvation and sanctification. All doubt in connec- 
tion with the marriage and its Divine meaning would 
seem to be dissipated by the appended record of the 
evangelist. The details of the marvel were wrought 
by the Master with a defined and recognized purpose. 
In them Jesus " manifested forth his glory." The 
word " glory " is used, which is the indisputable 
description in all parallel passages of His exalted 
condition and final triumph. Far beyond the tem- 
porary influence, which the mysterious change of 
water into wine wrought in the company of the 
guests, was the intention of the Master. The occur- 
rence stands in the gospel as at least an illustration 
of the first scene of His full manifestation of Him- 
self in the marriage-feast, which all the saints shall 
share at His second coming. The very symbolism 
is sustained in the fuller prophecy of Revelation. 
The wine was produced for the bridegroom's honor. 
To him did the ruler of the feast offer his congratu- 
lations. Even so shall it be when at the great feast 
of the Glory-land the commonest of earthly experi- 
ences and possessions shall at the Bridegroom's bid- 
ding be transmuted into the wine, which alone can 
make glad the heart of man. " Until that day when 



134 HE WILL COME, 

I drink it new with you in my Father's kingdom," * 
is the Master's limitation of the days of grace. 
Then fellowship with His people shall perfect the 
outline of His first earthly miracle. 

So soon as the carols of "the great multitude" 
shall have introduced " the marriage of the Lamb/' 
the believers shall be presented " faultless before the 
presence of His glory with exceeding joy."f Clean 
and bright will be the resplendent purity of the 
characters, with which they shall be clothed. Long 
since in the blood of the Lamb have they washed 
their robes and made them white. " His wife hath 
made herself ready." She has received from her 
adorable husband that marriage settlement, which 
shall forevermore enrich her as a " joint-heir with 
Christ." And now the gates of praise are wide 
opened. Bursts of heavenly song are wafted to the 
Seer. The light of the excellent glory blinds his 
sight in the vision. He lias perceived and heard 
more than it is lawful or possible to utter. With 
the angel's benediction he returns to the saints still 
in the struggle of life. In what ecstasy of emphasis 
does he record the words : " Blessed are they which 

* Matt, xxvi., 29. t Jude, 24. 



THE MARRIAGE OF THE LAMB. 135 

are called unto the marriage supper of the Lamb." * 
The cultivation of conscious union with Christ is 
the present preparation, to which all believers are 
constrained by this blessed hope. The Judgment 
Seat of Christ is the monitor of diligence and zeal in 
service, but the controlling motive of the marriage- 
supper is the blessedness of oneness with Christ in 
the participation of His grace and the promise of 
His glory. From Ml defection of heart and deflec- 
tion of life the Christian is recalled by the Divine 
assurance and summons : " Turn, O backsliding 
children, saith the Lord ; for I am married unto you : 
and I will take you one of a city, and two of a fam- 
ily, and I will bring you to Zion."| No other influ- 
ence, except the love of Divine condescension, is 
employed by the Spirit in the renewal of the first 
and lost love of believers. The heart of the Bride- 
groom is not changed. With the cords of love He 
draws again to Himself those, who have shown them- 
selves faithless to their espousals. What a comfort to 
many a desponding and almost despairing believer has 
been the discovery of this Divine method of restora- 
tion. Divorce is not known in the vocabulary of grace. 

* Revel, xix., 9. t Jer. iii., 14. 



136 HE WILL COME, 

The persevering pursuit of a realization of 
Christ's love to himself, and the reciprocation in 
devotion of such perceived affection, are the solitary 
signs in the experience of the saint that he shall 
" sit down with Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, 
in the kingdom of heaven.'"* He may be but a beggar 
in this world, but if true to the Bridegroom he shall 
be " carried by the angels into Abraham's bosom,"| 
when his waiting days are over. It will not be 
questioned that the figure of the feast is maintained 
in this parable of Jesus, and that a distinguished 
station and companionship is assured to all, who have 
lived in the spirit of Lazarus. But the Master makes 
the motive more impressive in another parable and 
connects this reserved privilege with His personal 
return. We close our meditation with His words. 
What more need we to stimulate us to spirituality 
of heart and separateness of life than this revelation 
of His purpose ? Let us flee from all thoughts and 
things that would seduce us from our fidelity. Who 
knowetii how near the Bridegroom may be ? Now 
is He preparing a place for us. God forbid that 
any believer should grieve that Spirit of grace, who 

* Matt, viii., 11. t Luke xvi., 22. 



THE MARRIAGE OF THE LAMB. 137 



is preparing him for the place. " Let your loins be 
girded about, and your lights burning ; and ye your- 
selves like unto men that wait for their lord when 
he will return from the wedding ; that, when lie 
cometh and knocketh, they may open unto him im- 
mediately. Blessed are those servants, whom the 
lord when he cometh shall find watching : verily I 
say unto you, that he shall gird himself, and will 
make them to sit down to meat, and will come forth 
and serve them. . . .Be ye therefore ready also : for 
the Son of Man cometh at an hour when ye think 
not."* 



* Luke xii., 35-3T, 40. 

While thus along the star-paved firmament 

The Bride, awakened from the holy rest 

Of ages, hastened to her mother earth, 

There to assume her hymeneal robes, 

And, with, the residue of God's elect 

Made perfect, wait the advent of her Lord, 

Himself the Bridegroom on the right of power, 

Where in the heaven of heavens He sate embosom'd, 

Rose in His awful Majesty, and deign' d 

Ascend the chariot of Omnipotence, 

Borne onward by cherubic shapes. 

Human He was 

In every lineament, yet likest God, 
Flame girdled, like a sardine stone afire, 
Pure bright amid impenetrable dark, 
Insufferably radiant, till it wrote 



138 HE WILL COME. 



Mercy's great symbol on the clouds of wrath, 
And with its arch of soften'd rainbow hues, 
Gold, emerald, aud Termilion spanu'd the throne. 

* * * _ * * # 

The Bridegroom met the Bride alone ? Himself 

In glorified humanity supreme, 

Incarnate Light : and she like Him in glory, 

No spot or wrinkle on her holy brow, 

No film upon her robes of dazzling white, 

Most beautiful, most glorious: every saint 

Perfect in individual perfectness; 

And each to each so fitly interlink' d, 

Join'd and compact, their countless millions seem'd, 

One body by one Spirit inspired and moved, 

The various members knit in faultless grace, 

The feeblest as the strongest necessary, 

Nor schism, nor discord, nor excess, nor lack ; 

The Ideal of all beauty realized, 

The Impersonation of delight and love. 

And the Lord look'd on her ; and in His eye 
Beam'd admiration infinite, Diviue, 

She was His choseu, His elect 

***** * 

Wife of the Lamb, known only by His name 

Oh finite image of the Infinite : 

Oh holy creaturehood, perfect at last : 

Oh true Self raised to true unselfishness, 

Living for Him alone, who is thy life, 

All and in all for Him as He for God. 



And when instinctively we raised our eyes 
From contemplation of the heavenly forms, 
Now ours for ever, to the Prince we loved, 
To thank Him who had made us, behold 



THE MARRIAGE OF TEE LAMB. 139 



These bodies of our glory could sustain 

More of His glory than the naked spirit ; 

Our pure affections His affectious clasp'd ; 

Aud every form within us had some hold 

On His omnipotence. Like imaged like. 

And, as with us, so was it with the rest : 

To all a vast promotion of their bliss, 

To each the increase, as each sow'd on earth. 

Love only can know love. And as they loved, 

They knew Him. As they knew Him, they returned 

His lineaments of beatific light: 

So glory is proportionate to grace. 

But hearken, now a concert of sweet sounds 
On all sides imperceptibly arose, 
From twice ten thousand flutes the ravish' d air 
Soliciting, and whispering in all hearts, 
The marriage of the Lamb was come. 

E. H. BlCKERSTETH. 



XI. 



The Coming with Glory. 



The Lord my God shall come, and all the saints with thee.— Zech. xiv., 5. 
The Son of Man shall come in the. glory of His Father with His angels.— 
Matt, xvi., 27. 

Behold, He cometh with clouds ; and every eye shall see Him, and they 
also which pierced Him : and all kindreds of the earth shall wail because 
of Him.— Rev. i., 7. 




HE portion of the saints in the Glory- 
land will be their preparation for 
^ participation in the enthronement of 
the Lord over the whole earth. Full of 
joy as will be their experience, when crowned 
and satisfied at the Marriage Supper of the 
Lamb, still this shall not be their final state. They 
shall find a higher measure of bliss in the devotion 
to service, for which they have been called, claimed 
and glorified. " These are they which follow the 



THE COMING WITH GLOBY. 141 

Lamb whithersoever He goeth. These were re- 
deemed from among men, being the first-fruits unto 
God and to the Lamb."* From that moment of 
rapture their lives are inseparable from the presence 
of the Lord. When He cometh to execute vengeance 
and exalt righteousness among those, who abide on 
the earth, they must form the train of His glory. In 
all unfulfilled promise they are appointed to an 
active share of " His work, His strange work ; and 
bring to pass His act, His strange act." f 

A better transition of thought from the celestial 
condition of the changed believers to their super- 
earthly station and office could not be phrased, than 
that which succeeds in .Revelation the description of 
the Marriage Feast : " And I saw heaven opened, 
and behold a white horse ; and He that sat upon 
him was called Faithful and True ; and in righteous- 
ness He doth judge and make war. His eyes were 
as a flame of fire, and on His head were many crowns ; 
and He had a name written that no man knew but 
He Himself : and He was clothed with a vesture 
dipped in blood : and His name is called The Word 
of God. And the armies which were in heaven 

* Revel, xiv., 4. t Isaiah xxviii., 21. 



142 HE WILL COME. 



followed Him upon white horses, clothed in fine 
linen, white and clean."* In symbolical language 
does the Seer on Patmos present the descent from 
the Glory-land of the King with those, who attend 
and share the brightness of His coming. "Whilst 
feasting with them on high He summons them to 
war : 

" 'My Father's will be done. 
His will is Mine. The fated hour has struck 
Of battle. On Mine ears bnt now there fell 
The short, sharp cry of Israel's travail-pangs. 
Come with Me, saints and angels, and behold 
My foes and yours prostrate beneath our feet. 
Now is the day of vengeauce in My heart, 
And now the year of My redeemed is come.' 

He spake; and lo ! that festive scene of love 
Quickly appear'd a camp of mustering war, 
From whose cerulean gates, wide open thrown, 
Messiah seated on a snow-white horse 
Of fiery brightness, as the Lord of Hosts, 
Apparell'd in a vesture dipp'd in blood, 
And many crowns upon His sacred head, 
Rode conquering and to conquer forth. And those 
Who lately at His marriage feast reclined, 
Appear'd an army, clothed in robes of white, 
And mounted like their Lord on steeds of tire, 
A glorious retinue. On either side, 
Like wings of light-arm'd troops, innumerable, 
The hosts of angels, ranged in order, march'd ; 
And as they march'd, to sound of martial trumps, 
Poured forth prophetic strains of Jubilee." t 

* Revel, xix., 11-14. t E. H. Bickersteth. 











THE COMING WITH GLORY. 143 




Previous to this descent of the King with His 
court a series of revolutions, apostasies and tribula- 
tions will have convulsed the history of the earth. 
The surprise at the disappearance of the saints by 
the glorious rapture will be succeeded by commo- 
tions both in church and state, which are presented 
in the Word as the signs of the Lord's coming. 
So numerous are the references to this stage in the 
development of God's purpose, that it would be need- 
ful to surrender all the space given to this medita- 
tion, if w r e should attempt to quote a tithe of them. 
" The Spirit speaketh expressly, that in the latter 
times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed 
to seducing spirits, and doctrines of devils."* " This 
know also, that in the last days perilous times shall 
come." t " There shall come in the last days scoffers, 
walking after their own lusts, and saying, Where is 
the promise of His coming ? "J " As it was in the 
days of Noe .... as it was in the days of Lot .... 
even thus shall it be in the day when the Son of 
Man is revealed." § There is not in the whole Book 
of God a passage descriptive of the reign of Christ, 
which does not predict this preceding condition of 

* 1 Tim. iv., 1. 1 2 Tim. iii., 1. 1 2 Peter iii., 3, 4. § Luke xvii., 26, 28, 30. 









144 RE WILL COME. 

things among men. Every text bearing upon the 
topic will be found, on examination, to point to this 
terrible close of the present dispensation of the 
gospel. They are without warrant in the Word, who 
are looking for the conversion of the world by the 
preaching of the Cross and the extending influence 
of the church. In no portion of scripture is such a 
hope justified. All that the gospel was designed to 
accomplish was less than this. The commission 
given to His disciples by the ascending Lord was 
express : " Ye shall be witnesses unto Me both in Je- 
rusalem, and in all Judea, and in Samaria, and unto 
the uttermost part of the earth. "* This is the lim- 
ited office of all the ministries of the present dispen- 
sation. " This gospel of the kingdom shall be 
preached in all the world for a witness unto all 
nations ; and then shall the end come."t So far 
from the expectation of the Spirit is the universal, 
or even general submission of mankind to the cruci- 
fied Jesus, that, in one of the earliest councils of the 
church, He made known through Simeon His pur- 
pose in visiting the Gentiles " to take out of them a 
people for His name." % How cheering, had it been 

* Acts i., S. t Matt, xxiv., 14. X Acts xv., 14. 



THE COXING WITH GLORY, 145 

truthful, would have been such an assurance of suc- 
cess to the early Christians ! Numberless opportu- 
nities are given in the epistles for its pertinent ex- 
pression. That it was withheld is an indication of 
the mind of the Spirit, made plain in the other 
scriptures, which enumerate believers as a " little 
flock," before whom there lies a dark parenthesis of 
persecution, opposition and trial until shall be ma- 
tured the " Father's good, pleasure to give you the 
kingdom." * 

The error, into which the Thessalonian church 
was betrayed, gave an occasion for the presentation 
by St. Paul of very positive instruction on this topic. 
They had been troubled in mind, through rumor and 
a letter which claimed this apostle's authority, by 
the fear that the church had even then been " caught 
up," and that they had been left and rejected. This 
is the force of the phrase : " as that the day of Christ 
is at hand." In every other use of the word within 
the New Testament it is rendered in the sense of 
" being present." "But these Thessalonians imagined 
it to be already come." f Manifestly their condition 
was a terrible one if they had nothing, to which they 

* Luke xii., 32. t Alford. 



146 HE WILL COME. 

might look forward, but judgment and fiery indigna- 
tion when the Lord should appear with the saints 
from the Glory. To banish this dread and to correct 
the conviction, out of which it had sprung, the apos- 
tle employs these explicit words : 66 Let no man 
deceive you by any means: for that day shall not 
come, except there come a falling away first, and 
that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition. 
.... For the mystery of iniquity doth already work : 
only He who now letteth will let, until he be taken 
out of the way : And then shall that Wicked be 
revealed, whom the Lord shall consume with the 
Spirit of His mouth, and shall destroy with the 
brightness of His coming."* "Without entering into 
an extended exposition, it is certain that the fore- 
running facts of His coming are not a growth of the 
spiritual church and a world-Avide extension of the 
gospel. Precisely the opposite to this picture of 
the fancy is the truth of God. Even the Holy Ghost, 
who now hindereth the development of the mystery 
of iniquity, will be taken out of the w T ay. The power 
of the " Man of Sin " and " that Wicked " shall be 
unresisted until their final destruction, not by this 

* 2 Thess. ii., 3, 7, 8. 



THE COMING WITH GLORY. 147 

gospel, but by the glorious coming of Christ. These 
words are the echo of the prophecy of Daniel,* which 
should be examined in connection with them. " Un- 
til the Ancient of days came, and judgment was 
given to the saints of the Most High ; and the time 
came that the saints possessed the kingdom," f is the 
Divine definition of the limit of this malign control 
and the method of its annihilation. 

To all these passages let us add the plain words of 
Jesus. After sketching the sorrows, which should 
befall Jerusalem and the Jewish nation at the hands 
of their Roman conquerors, and giving in outline 
the mission and ministry of His believing people, 
He addressed Himself to the incidents which should 
usher in His second coming and the end of this dis- 
pensation. The conversation from which we quote 
was held with four of His disciples, named by St. 
Mark, " as He sat upon the mount of Olives, over 
against the temple." % It contains full answers to 
three anxious questions, which had been suggested 
by His prediction as He departed from the temple. 
" Tell us," said they, " when shall these things be ? 
and what shall be the sign of Thy coming, and of 

* Dan. xi., 36. t IMd, vii., 22. t Mark xiii., 3. 



148 HE WILL COME. 

the end of the world ? " The context will be found 
to cover the scope of the first two queries, whilst the 
third is satisfied by a prediction not of triumph but 
of tribulation. Like all previous dispensations, the 
present is to close with apparent failure. The pur- 
poses of grace must rule even amidst ruin. Grace 
cannot fail. " Though we believe not yet He abideth 
faithful." As it was in the Garden, and in the times 
of the Flood, and at the first coming of Jesus, so 
shall it also be when this age shall end. The dis- 
pensations are parallel in this respect, until the king- 
dom shall be established. The defection of formal- 
ists, the defeat of the church, and the despair of 
the world are the marks of the impending crisis in 
the relations of our race to God and His Christ. 
" Immediately after the tribulation of those days. . . . 
and then shall appear the sign of the Son of Man in 
heaven : and then shall the tribes of the earth mourn, 
and they shall see the Son of Man coming in the clouds 
of heaven with power and great glory. And He 
shall send His angels with a great sound of a trumpet, 
and they shall gather together His elect from the 
four winds, from one end of heaven to the other." * 

*Matt. xxiv., 29-31. 



THE COMING WITH GLORY. 149 

It may be confidently affirmed, for we have the 
full warrant of the Word, that in no possible sense 
is the next dispensation to be a development of the 
present. With the scenes of sorrow already detailed 
will "the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled."* The 
words of the gospel, like the preaching of Noah, 
will have done their work. And the interposition 
of a new expedient of Glory will introduce another 
order of things. This is plainly taught, so far as 
the idea of government is concerned, by the Divine 
interpretation of Nebuchadnezzar's vision. Every 
succeeding dominion has incorporated the history of 
the past. Babylon, Persia, Greece, Rome, and the 
present sub-divided sovereignties have lineal rela- 
tions to one another. This must be the course of 
history until the completion of the present age. But 
the next experience of earth is to be, not a further 
addition by development to this " great image, 
whose brightness was excellent," but " a stone cut 
without hands, which smote the image upon his feet 
.... and the stone that smote the image became a 
great mountain, and filled the whole earth." The 
coming kingdom has no conceivable connection, as 

* Luke xxi., 24. 



150 HE WILL COME. 

by cause and effect, with the nationalities of to-day. 
It will be introduced by a supreme sovereignty. " In 
the days of these kings shall the God of heaven set 
up a kingdom, which shall never be destroyed : and 
the kingdom shall not be left to other people, but it 
shall break in pieces and consume all these kingdoms, 
and it shall stand for ever." * An equally marked 
contrast is drawn between the present and proximate 
condition of the church. Now believers are in mor- 
tal bodies, then shall they " bear the image of the 
heavenly." Their present education and discipline 
are under the direction of the Holy Ghost, but 
" when Christ, who is our life, shall appear, then 
shall ye also appear with Him in glory." f " Now 
I know in part ; but then shall I know even as also 
I am known." % With the resurrection and the rap- 
ture the relation of believers as subjects is to cease. 
Thenceforth " we shall also reign with Him." § Not 
less evident is the change to be wrought in the na- 
tional character and worship of the Jewish people. 
No longer shall Zion " be plowed as a field .... and 
the mountain of the house as the high places of the 
forest. But in the last days it shall come to pass, 

* Daniel ii., 44. t Coloss. iii., 4. 1 1 Cor. xiii., 12. § 2 Tim. ii., 12. 



THE COMING WITH GLORY. 151 

that the mountain of the house of the Lord shall be 
established in the top of tha mountains, and it shall 
be exalted above the hills; and people shall flow 
unto it. And many nations shall come, and say, 
Come, and let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, 
and to the house of the God of Jacob ; and He will 
teach us of His ways, and we will walk in His paths ; 
for the law shall go forth of Zion, and the word of 
the Lord from Jerusalem."* The recovery of their 
lost estate is not to be attained by natural processes, 
but by a Divine intervention, unknown to present 
civilization. The choice of Israel is to be vindicated 
" when the Lord of Hosts shall reign in mount 
Zion, and in Jerusalem, and before His ancients glo- 
riously." f 

The analogy of all previous dispensations is thus 
maintained by prophecy. No law of outgrowth is 
there in the purpose of grace. At every change in 
the methods of His dealing with men our Lord has 
made a new manifestation of Himself. This has 
sealed the faith or the rebellion of those, who lived 
before its gift, and has introduced new truth for the 
trust and obedience of those who should come after. 

*Micah iii.. 12; iv., 1, 2. t Isaiah xxiv., 23. 



152 HE WILL COME. 

The innocence of our first parents in Eden was lost 
through disobedience. The temptations of the ser- 
pent were successful, and sin brought with it the 
curse and shame. To have eaten of the tree of life 
and lived forever in that lost condition would have 
been for them an incomparable calamity, as well as 
the final overthrow of the salvation of our race. To 
avert this possible increase of sorrow and suffering 
the dispensation of the garden was brought to an 
immediate end. God " drove out the man : and He 
placed at the east of the garden of Eden cherubim, 
and a flaming sword which turned every way, to 
keep the way of the tree of life."* These signs 
should not be confounded. The one expressed re- 
jection; the other exhibited reconciliation. The 
flaming sword was the symbol of wrath, but the 
cherubim mingled mercy even with the exclusion. 
They served to encourage faith in the promise of 
the victorious seed, through whom at last man should 
gain re-admission. But neither of the twain be- 
longed by development to the closing dispensation. 
They were sovereign manifestations of God, which 
were given, when through sin the original revelation 

* Genesis iii., 24. 



THE COMING WITH GLORY. ' 153 

made by God failed in its influence. With these 
tokens at the gate of Eden was opened the dispensa- 
tion of the patriarchs and prophets. It was an 
entirely new scheme for the declaration of God's 
salvation. In no sense was it the development of 
that which had preceded its appointment. Through 
ages it ran its course. It became rich with truth 
and types, but it too failed. The law was weak 
through the flesh. " But when the fulness of the 
time was come God sent forth His Son, made of a 
woman, made under the law, to redeem them that 
were under the law, that we might receive the 
adoption of sons." The cruelty of high priests and 
scribes, clamoring for the blood of Christ, is a pal- 
pable proof that the system of the law had neither 
resulted favorably for man, nor recognized the in- 
coming Galilean Jesus as the fruitage of its princi- 
ples. Once more God thrust His hand into the tide 
of history. Parallel with this statement was the 
supplemental gift of the Holy Ghost on the day of 
Pentecost. He came because it was expedient for 
the believer that Jesus should go away. The incar- 
nate Christ was not sufBcient for the manifestation 
of grace. Surely it will not be claimed that the 



154 HE WILL COME. 

cloven tongues of fire and the great* wind, which 
certified the advent of the Holy Ghost, were lineally 
related to the dispensation of the Lord's earthly life ? 
Like all that had gone before them, these days of 
God's tabernacling with man were followed by an alto- 
gether new, and theretofore unsuspected, revelation 
of God. It is under the ministry of the present 
Spirit of Grace that we are passing our lives of priv- 
ilege and responsibility. The believer in this dis- 
pensation has the advantage of all the saints of the 
ended ages. Truth is clearer. Heaven is nearer. 
God, in His covenant promises and perfections, is 
never absent from our lives. The office of the Holy 
Ghost is to glorify Jesus in His finished work and 
to herald His coming reign. But the hour is timed 
in God's purpose, wdien He shall " be taken out of 
the way."* This dispensation must close in dark- 
ness. The saints of all ages have been safely gath- 
ered into rest, even though the systems under which 
they were educated and disciplined were Divinely 
laid aside. So shall it be with the believers through 
the gospel. But the world must be condemned for 
its misuse of the ministry of the Holy Ghost. The 

* 2 Thess. ii., 7. 



THE COMING WITH GLORY. 155 

harmony of the purposes of God is maintained in 
the prophecy, which points to the Divine plan for 
ending the present and opening the immediate dis- 
pensation. Not by evolution, but by another and 
an entirely inconceivable event will the coming king- 
dom be introduced. "The Lord Jesus shall be revealed 
from heaven with His mighty angels, in flaming fire 
taking vengeance on them that know not God, and 
that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ." * 
Sad indeed to living sinners will be the coming of 
Christ with His glorified saints. The Judgment of 
War and of Wrath shall then be begun. Let men 
be warned. Let the saints in holy trembling wait. 
" For behold, the day cometh that shall burn as an 
oven; and all the proud, yea, and all that do wick- 
edly, shall be stubble : and the day that cometh shall 
burn them up, saith the Lord of Hosts, that it shall 
leave them neither root nor branch. But unto you 
that fear my name shall the Sun of righteousness 
arise with healing in his wings." 

The Lord will come ! but not the same 

As once in lowly form He came, 

A silent Lamb to slaughter led, 

The bruised, the suffering, and the dead. 

*2 Thess. i., 7, 8. 



156 BE WILL COME. 



The Lord will come ! a dreadful form, 
With wreath of flame, and robe of storm ; 
On cherub wings, and wiugs of wind, 
Anointed Judge — of humau-kind. 

Can this be He, who wont to stray 

A pilgrim on the world's highway, 

By power oppressed, and marked by pride ? 

O God ! is this the Crucified ? 

Go tyrants ! to the rocks complain I 
Go seek the mountains' cleft in vain ! 
But faith, victorious o'er the tomb, 
Shall sing for joy, the Lord is come. 

Bp. Eeginald Heber. 



XII. 

The Kingdom of Glory. 



He shall have dominion also from sea to sea, "and from the river unto the 
ends of the earth.— Psalm lxxii., S. 

The kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord, and 
of His Christ ; and He shall reign for ever and ever.— Rev. xi., 15. 

We shall also reign with Him.— 2 Tim. ii., 12. 




" the coming of our Lord Jesns 
Christ with all His saints "* shall be- 
^ gin the true Golden Age of this 
earth, of which philosophers have spec- 
ulated and poets sung through all the gen- 
erations. There is a subtle conviction in 
all thinking minds that the best days of our planet- 
home are yet to come. Each past age of gold has 
been an iron age too. It has not satisfied even the 
dreamers of our race. The ideal of social perfection 



*1 Thess. iii., 13. 



158 HE WILL COME. 

has never yet been approached by government or in 
history. For this the world waits. Even irrational 
creatures, in the striking figure concealed by the 
Greek word which St. Paul used, "now seized by an 
higher impulse, by a supernatural longing, seem to 
stretch out their heads and look forth spiritually for 
a spiritual object of their existence."* There must 
be substance to correlate this universal instinct of 
man. As light is related to the eye, sound to the 
ear, flavor to the taste, water to the fin, air to the 
wing, so must there be somewhat adjusted in the 
purpose of God to this natural longing of our race. 
The possession of the faculty is a prophecy of the 
fact. If this be not so, then man is a greater riddle 
than the world contains. As immortality answers 
the demands of his spirit, so does the resurrection 
and enthronement of righteousness solve the hopes 
for his body, that he cannot silence. 

The dignity of the believer, which is now a 
dogma, will in that day become a demonstration. 
Through the veil of humiliation, at present cast 
over the Christian, somewhat of the grandeur of 
his relations and the greatness of his station cannot 

* Lange on Rom. viii., 19-23. 



THE KINGDOM OF GLORY. 159 

fail to be perceived. He is a prince in disguise, but 
his noble spirit and style serve to reveal him to 
even a carnal criticism. When the Lord cometh, 
his royal birth and heirship shall be expressed in his 
incorruptible body and more than angelic mission. 
The contrast between them and living men in 
mortal bodies will be incomparably manifested, when 
the saints sit with Christ in His throne and partake 
with Him in His dominion and judgment of the 
world. It is a very false representation of scripture 
which pictures the church as subjects of the coming 
kingdom. They shall indeed acknowledge a sub- 
mission to their Lord, but towards the inhabitants of 
the earth they will assert a majesty. For this they 
will have been qualified by their glorification and to 
this they have even now been assigned by prophecy 
and promise. 

In whatsoever direful work at the opening of 
the "Kingdom of Glory, the enthroned Christ shall 
be engaged, they must bear their solemn part. 
They are not the executioners of wrath but they 
are, in a mysterious relation to the Lord, to 
"judge the world."* "The reapers are the angels." f 

*1 Cor. vi., 2. tMatt. xiii., 39. 



160 HE WILL COME. 

" The Son of Man shall send forth His angels, 
and they shall gather out of His kingdom all 
things that offend, and them which do iniquity." f 
With such a clearance of its evil shall the reign of 
the thousand years be introduced over the earth. 
The graphic description of this judgment of the 
living nations is given by the Master in unmis- 
takeable words. To refer the passage to any other 
event than that, which marks the inauguration of 
His kingdom, is to do violence to both the context 
and comparative scripture. He speaks of the coinci- 
dents of His coming. The persons He summons 
will be alive upon the earth when He appears. There 
is no reference in any verse to the dead of either 
this dispensation, or of the great tribulation. Moreover 
the question, which shall determine the destiny of 
those whose persons are approved or condemned, 
will not be their relation to the gospel, which will 
have ended its mission, but their treatment of " the 
least of these my brethren." These features of the 
prophecy would seem to protect it from that per- 
version, which confounds it with the judgment of 
the unjustified dead before the great white throne, 

t Matt, xiii., 41. 



THE KINGDOM OF GLORY. 161 

at the close of the millennium. With these principles 
of interpretation in mind let us read the Master's 
prediction : " When the Son of Man shall come 
in His glory, and all the holy angels with Him, 
then shall He sit upon the throne of His glory : 
and before Him shall be gathered all nations : 
and He shall separate them one from another, as a 
shepherd divideth his sheep from the goats." * To 
those approved is opened " the kingdom prepared 
for you from the foundation of the world," while 
the rejected ones are condemned to " everlasting 
fire, prepared for the devil and his angels." "And 
Enoch also, the seventh from Adam, prophesied of 
these, saying, Behold, the Lord cometh w T ith ten 
thousand of His saints, to execute judgment upon 
all, and to convince all that are ungodly among 
them of all their ungodly deeds which they have 
ungodly committed, and of all their hard speeches 
which ungodly sinners have spoken" against Him."f 
The Old Testament is filled with prophecies which 
depict in detail the progress and sequence of the 
events, that will prepare the earth for its millen- 
nium of righteousness and rest. It does not lie 

* Matt, xxv., 31, 32. t Jude 14, 15. 



162 HE WILL COME. 

within our purpose to pursue this line of thought 
farther than to indicate some of the more marked 
scenes. And these must be grouped in a paragraph, 
though pages could be filled with citations, which 
support them. 

When the nations have been thus Divinely ar- 
rested in their course of rebellion, Jerusalem shall 
become " beautiful for situation, the joy of the 
whole earth."* The temple and the city shall be 
rebuilt and the ceremonial of the restored tribes 
re-established for a memorial of grace. In the 
midst of the city shall be the Lord for " an everlast- 
ing light, and thy God thy glory." f Thenceforth 
"thou shalt be called by a new name, which the 
mouth of the Lord shall name." % " At that time 
they shall call Jerusalem the throne of the Lord ; 
and all the nations shall be gathered unto it, to the 
name of the Lord, to Jerusalem : neither shall they 
walk any more after the imagination of their evil 
heart." § The name of the city from that day shall 
be Jehovah Shammah — " the Lord is there." || To 
this period belong the prophecies of Isaiah, Jere- 

* Psalms xlviii., 2; Isaiah lxii., 7. t Ibid, lx., 19. tlMd, lxii., 2. § Jer. 
iii., IT. I! Ezek. xlviii., 35. 



THE KINGDOM OF GLORY. 163 

miah, Ezekiel, Zechariah, and other writers in the 
Old Testament, who foretell the eminence, pros- 
perity and influence of the Holy Land and the 
chosen people. Every attempt to wrest their literal 
meaning will be found fruitless, if the student is 
sincere in his search for truth. The context in 
every passage will present suggestions to withstand 
allegorizers to the face. The Spirit of God is in no 
part of revelation more explicit, than in these f ore- 
shadowings of the glory of Israel. " And so all 
Israel shall be saved : as it is written, There shall 
come out of Sion the Deliverer, and shall turn 
away ungodliness from Jacob." * The result of this 
rejection of the rebellious nations, and the ingather- 
ing of the ancient people of God will be the estab- 
lishment of the dominion of the Prince of Peace. 
" Righteousness shall be the girdle of His loins, 

and faithfulness the girdle of Plis reins They 

shall not hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountain : 
for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the 
Lord, as the waters cover the sea." f " They shall 
teach no more every man his neighbor, and every 
man his brother, saying, Know the Lord : for they 

* Rom. xi., 26. t Isaiah xi., 5, 9. 



164 HE WILL COME. 

shall all know Me, from the least of them unto the 
greatest of them, saith the Lord." * " For the earth 
shall be filled with the knowledge of the glory of 
the Lord, as the waters cover the sea.'' | In bare 
outline only are we able, with the space at our com- 
mand, to trace the entrancing features of the King- 
clom of Glory. 

"Wonderful as are the words, which declare the 
condition of those who shall dwell upon the earth 
during this Theocracy, the privilege and portion 
of the believers of this dispensation shall far 
transcend description. " Eye hath not seen, nor ear 
heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, 
the things which God hath prepared for them that 
love Him." J Perhaps our station and office shall be 
analogous to those of the angels in the dispensation of 
grace. As in mysterious forms messengers were sent 
to the patriarchs, prophets, chosen saints, and the 
Master Himself, in His earthly life, so it may be 
that our glorified bodies will fit us for visible or in- 
visible service. There is a lesson on this truth in 
the resurrection life of Jesus, which is worthy of 
sacred thought. And yet, whilst equal with the 

* Jer. xxxi., 34. t Hab. ii., 14. t 1 Cor. ii., 9. 



THE KINGDOM OF GLOEY. 



165 



angels in exaltation, how much better the relation 
of those, who are taught to claim : " now are we the 
sons of God ; and it doth not yet appear what we 
shall be : but we know that, when He shall ap- 
pear, we shall be like Him ; for we shall see Him 
as He is." * The only approach to a definition 
of the believer's relation to the reign of Christ is 
given by St. John in words which, more thau all 
others contained in his marvelous Revelation, appear 
to be divested of symbolism : "I saw thrones, and 
they sat upon them, and judgment was given unto 
them .... and they lived and reigned with Christ a 
thousand years."! 

But to this session with Christ in His throne of 
government must be added from the Word of God 
the office of priesthood, to which the believers are to 
be assigned. The praises of heaven are the peculiar 
privilege of saints from earth. The completeness 
of the service is expressed in the carols of the four 
and twenty elders. These have their number, in the 
figurative description of St. John, from the division 
of the priesthood in the time of David. The ap- 
pointment of the twenty-four courses of priests was 

*1 John iii., 2. t Revel, xx., 4. 



166 EE WILL COME. 

the final development of the designation of Aaron's 
family, who had themselves been substituted for the 
father and eldest son of each house, in this same office. 
And now the number, which expresses the perfect- 
ness of the priesthood, is employed by the Spirit 
to enforce the thought, that at last the highest 
stage of mediation has been reached, and the com- 
panies of spiritual priests are complete. Before the 
descent to the earth with the King of Glory, St. 
John in vision beholds them fall down before the 
Lamb, " having every one of them harps and golden 
vials full of odours, which are the prayers of saints. 
And they sang a new song, saying, Thou art worthy 
to take the book, and to open the seals thereof : for 
Thou wast slain, and hast redeemed us to God, by 
Thy blood, out of every kindred, and tongue, and 
people, and nation ; and hast made us unto our God 
kings and priests : and we shall reign on the earth."* 
With this heavenly calling the saints of all ages 
shall be recognized in the Kingdom of Glory. The 
samples of their songs given in Revelation exclude 
all other subjects but those of praise. They adore 
the King in His beauty. They voice the submission 



* Revel, v., 8. 



THE KINGDOM OF GLORY. 167 

and rejoicing of the earthly subjects of His reign. 
Why may we not suppose that often, as on high 
festivals of joy, they will sing in mid-air ? Even 
over Bethlehem's plain the Shekinah chased away 
the shadows of midnight and song broke the silence 
of the shepherd's watch. Surely higher will be the 
notes of adoration and thanksgiving than those of 
prophecy. The world in its millennial peace and 
rest will be girdled with the praises of the glorified 
priesthood of saints. 

The Kingdom of Glory will be the contrast in 
principle and spirit of all previous dominions. 
Though invested at the opening of each dispensation 
with the sovereignty of the earth, man has at each 
experiment proved a failure. Adam and Noah had 
parallel permission and charges to subdue and have 
dominion over the earth and all lower forms of life. 
Both equally were deprived of their sway through 
sin. When Jesus came with the self -applied title of 
" Son of Man," which no other lips than His ever 
lisped during His earthly life, it was the purpose of 
God to re-introduce the abdicated kingdom. The 
natural right to this throne of the forces and forms 
of the earth was established by covenant obliga- 



168 RE WILL COME. 

tions to David and his seed. The two claims from 
his davs are interwoven and identified. The ruling 
man must sit " upon the throne of David, and upon 
his kingdom, to order it, and to establish it with 
judgment and with justice from henceforth even for 
ever." * Matthew in his gospel emphasizes this view 
of our Lord's mission. The genealogv which he 
gives traces the lineal descent of Christ through 
Joseph from Solomon and so vindicates His legal 
right to the succession of David. The Magi 
came to Jerusalem with the curious query : 
"Where is He that is born King of the Jews P'f 
John Baptist proclaimed Him in this royal char- 
acter : "Repent ye: for the kingdom of heaven 
is at hand." % The substance of His own preach- 
ing at the first was the repetition of His fore- 
runner's announcement. § The disciples were charged 
to herald the same dispensation.|| Thus, by title and 
claim, did Jesus assume the lost sovereignty of man 
over things and of the Messiah over Israel. His 
miracles were performed as the Son of Man. They 
expressed the lordship over nature, which was the 
original endowment of our race, but which since 

* Isaiah ix., 7. t Matt, ii., 2. i Ibid, iii.. 2. § Ibid, iv., IT. li Ibid, x., 7. 



THE KINGDOM OF GLORY. 169 

the Full had been in abeyance. The wind and 
the seas obeyed His voice. The conscious water 
blushed to own its Lord. Diseases were destroyed, 
death was disarmed, and devils were exorcised at 
His bidding. The God-Man was the Son of Man. 
In Himself were united the powers of Deity and an 
unfallen humanity. There is a meaning, which is 
not always recognized, in His w r ords to His wonder- 
ing disciples : " Verily, verily, I say unto you, He 
that believe th on Me, the w r orks that I do shall lie 
do also ; and greater works than these shall he do ; 
because I go unto My Father." * The recognition 
of Jesus was refused. The sample Man was despised 
and rejected. While supernatural powers were ex- 
ercised by the apostles for a time, they soon ceased. 
Faith in the kingdom failed. It would be difficult 
to give any satisfactory reason for the sudden cessa- 
tion of extraordinary gifts and powers in the church. 
There are many existing theories, but not one of them 
gains its authority from the Word. Philosophy has no 
office in such a matter as this. The sin of unbelief is 
the thief . As under previous dispensations so since the 
incarnation of Jesus has it robbed man of his royalty. 

x John xiv., 12. 



170 HE WILL COME. 

All governments, both in state and church, have 
reversed the principles of His kingdom. And 
they have been the causes and occasions of un- 
ceasing social convulsions and revolution. He pro- 
posed the power of weakness. The defeated Christ 
was enthroned and pronounced the King. Submis- 
sion was to be the synonymn of strength. Exalta- 
tion was to be wrought by humbling one's self. 
Enrichment of spirit and station was to be sought 
by esteeming other better than one's self, and looking 
for the advancement of other rather than self. The 
culmination of such a kingdom was to be, and will be, 
the child of prophecy,* w T ho though apparently all 
weakness shall be the leader of the wildest forces 
and the subduer of most contrary natures. This 
was " the Gospel of the Kingdom," which Jesus 
preached but which all governmental history has 
opposed. Might has made right. Ambition has 
worn the purple. Self has supplanted Jehovah. 
Like the beasts of Daniel's vision, f each " dreadful 
and terrible and strong exceedingly," and all de- 
vouring and breaking in pieces and stamping the 
residue with their feet, have been the succes- 

y Isaiali xi., 6. f Daniel vii. 



THE KINGDOM OF GLORY. 171 

sive dynasties of universal rule. The world waits 
for rest. Never can it come by the principles 
which prevail in present national and ecclesias- 
tical life. Commotions must continue' so long as 
appeal is made to pride and force. " Thus saith 
the Lord God ; Remove the diadem, and take 
off the crown : this shall not be the same : exalt him 
that is low, and abase him that is high. I will over- 
turn, overturn, overturn it : and it shall be no more, 
until He come whose right it is ; and I will give it 
Him."* "When the crowned Christ, ever wearing 
the marks of His dying, shall receive His throne, it 
will be in His character as the " Son of Man." To 
Him shall the Ancient of days give " dominion, 
and glory, and a kingdom, that all people, nations, 
and languages, should serve Him : His dominion is 
an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, 
and His kingdom that which shall not be destroyed."! 
When the Messiah, once " cut off but not for Him- 
self," shall thus be confessed, the festival of earth 
will have come. A Lamb shall be in the midst of 
the throne. Love shall be the life of all that gather 
beneath its sovereignty and shadow. "Of the in- 

*Ezek. xxi., 26, 27. t Daniel vii., 14. 



172 HE WILL COME. 

crease of His government and peace there shall 
be no end."* 

The exemplification of the agencies of the coming 
Kingdom is to be sought in the earthly life of our 
Lord. The forces that He used were purely passive. 
It was an exceptional fact in His ministry when 
the words of woe trembled on His lips, or a fig tree 
withered as He passed. Even these were associated 
with scenes of submission. His path to the throne 
was beset by temptations, trials and troubles of 
every sort. Satan was ever suggesting a shorter 
way, but He resolutely refused to take it. Each 
onset in the wilderness had for its underlying prin- 
ciple the contrast of His purpose. Hunger was pre- 
ferred to selfishness. Not even the pinnacle of the 
temple could persuade Him to presumption. The 
offer of " all the kingdoms of the world, and the 
glory of them,"f the last and least of the 
schemes of the " prince of this world." Never 
could He receive them until, by the introduction 
and recognition of a Kino; who should rule through 
sacrifice, they could " become the kingdoms of 
our Lord, and of His Christ." * His reply was 

* Isaiah ix., T. t Matt, iv., 8. 



THE KINGDOM OF GLORY. 173 

a rebuke, which manifested His hidden thought. 
" Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and Him 
only shalt thou serve," was the accepted path of 
submission and self-surrender. This, again, He 
chose, when they " would come and take Him by 
force to make Him a king," for " He departed again 
into a mountain Himself alone." f The talk about 
the tribute money did not entangle Him. It fur- 
nished the occasion for that law of complete loyalty : 
" Render, therefore, unto Caesar the things which 
are Caesar's, and unto God the things that are 
God's." Thus by yielding did He conquer. And 
yet, never was there withheld the full claim of His 
majesty. Though He emphasized His method, He 
never reserved His motive. Every sorrow was en- 
dured as a step from the depth to the height. His 
own lifting up by the Cross was declared to be a part 
of His plan to draw all men unto Him. His self-re- 
straint on the way from Gethsemane to the Judg- 
ment Hall, when He might have summoned to His 
rescue more than twelve legions of angels, was 
self-explained as a necessity of His Kingdom. Be- 
fore Pilate He boldly avowed His royal character, 

* Revel, xi., 15. t John vi., 15. 



174 EE WILL COME. 

but instantly contrasted the scheme of His coming 
sovereignty with that, which had charged Him with 
sedition. " Jesus answered, My kingdom is not of 
this world. If my kingdom were of this world, then 
would my servants fight, that I should not be deliv- 
ered to the Jews : but now is my kingdom not 
from hence." * Though about to be crushed by 
Rome, He feared not failure in His mission. The 
Cross was the foot of the Throne. Through suffer- 
ings He knew that He was to be perfected. And 
in the face of its immediate endurance, He cheer- 
fully testified, " Thou sayest that I am a king. To 
this end was I born, and for this cause came I into 
the world, that I should bear witness unto the truth."| 
Yes, even while hanging in the agonies of cruci- 
fixion, He claimed power to admit into paradise a 
fellow-sufferer, who penitently prayed for remem- 
brance " when Thou comest into Thy kingdom." % 
Throughout His life, which ended on Golgotha, 
and the forty days of His appearance in the risen 
body, He spake openly to -His disciples of their future 
station when His sovereignty should be confessed. 
In not a single instance did He repress their expec- 

* John xviii., 36. t Ibid, 37. t Luke xxiii., 42. 



THE KINGDOM OF GLOBY. 175 

tation of a reign. His only warnings in several 
parables were against a false and fatal error, which 
was prevalent among them, " that the Kingdom of 
God should immediately appear."* Not even the 
selfish request of the mother of two of His disciples 
"that these my two sons may sit, the one on Thy 
right hand, and the other on the left, in Thy king- 
dom," | was denied. It led Him to speak of the bap- 
tism of blood and the cup of bitterness, which 
must be the precedents of such exaltation. But not 
even such submission can purchase nearness to the 
King. " It shall be given to them for whom it is 
prepared of my Father,"£ are the words with which 
the Master protected the sovereignty of its bestowal. 
Perhaps the opposition of present government to 
the coming kingdom is more forcibly and senten- 
tiously expressed in the context of this recorded 
incident than in any other part of the gospels. Jesus 
called the ten disciples, filled with indignation at 
the self-seeking of the two, and said, " Te know 
that the princes of the Gentiles exercise domin- 
ion over them, and they that are great exercise 
authority upon them. But it shall not be so among 

*Luke xix., 11. tMatt. xx., 21. tlbid, 23. 



176 EE WILL COME. 

you : but whosoever will be great among you, let 
him be your minister ; and whosoever will be chief 
among you, let him be your servant : even as the 
Son of Man came not to be ministered unto, but to 
minister, and to give His life a ransom for many." * 
This was the tone of all His teaching, and the basis 
of all His life from birth to burial. And when He 
shall " restore again the kingdom to Israel," | this 
shall be the code of His control. Gentleness shall 
make Him great forever. Whilst His days of 
humiliation are over His character cannot change. 
The Kingdom of Glory shall have kinship in spirit 
to the dispensation of grace. Its rest and rejoicing 
shall have the same cause and carols. "Whatever of 
outward pomp and circumstance may be added, 
the principles of the reign shall be the same forever, 
as they were yesterday, and are to-day. 

The present exaltation of Jesus is the pledge 
that these principles shall be enthroned and control 
the earth. " We see not yet all things put under 
Him : but we see Jesus, who was made a little lower 
than the angels for the suffering of death, crowned 
with glory and honor." * There has not been a 

* Matt, xx., 25-2S. t Acts i., 6. 



THE KINGDOM OF GLORY. Ill 

shadow of turning from the service of grace in 
the coming King since His ascension. His majesty 
is attractive. His light is resolved in the rainbow 
of the covenant, which is round about His heavenly 
throne. His commands are no more grievous than 
when He spake on earth. If it be possible His 
promises are fuller, richer, more royal, since through 
apostles and by epistles to the churches He opened 
the secrets of His grace and love. It is marvellous 
that there can be sympathy in heaven with the sor- 
row of earth. But this is a declared sign of His 
present station. With these characters and offices 
shall the King descend. Never shall there be a 
change of weapons. Earth shall recognize the 
might of right, the strength of weakness, the honor 
of humility, and the crown of compassion, w T hen 
Jesus of Nazareth shall be King. 

The kingdom of heaven is still on earth. It has 
not yet been caught up. Its subjects are in train- 
ing for the thrones in the regeneration, " when the 
Son of Man shall sit in the throne of His glory." f 
The invisible church shall be the queen of the King 
of Glory. Its members are now scattered through- 

* Heb. ii. s 8, 9. t Matt, xix., 28. 



178 



RE WILL COME. 



out all bodies of professed Christians. They con- 
stitute " the mystical body of Christ, which is 
the blessed company of all faithful people." Bound 
together by mutual submission and service, they bow 
with reverence before a common and coming King. 
Their zeal compels them to spread the kingdom 
throughout the world. Ignoring all earthly govern- 
ment, refusing to yield the control of truth to either 
proscriptive or subsidizing states, indifferent to the 
resistance of the schools of worldly wisdom, they 
persevere in their errand to testify the truth, as it is 
in Jesus. The reconciliation of men to God through 
the Christ of Calvary is their consuming desire. To 
accomplish this the children of the kingdom follow^, 
though at ever so great a distance, in the footsteps 
of the King. Poverty, disgrace, weariness and 
death itself, if needs be, are cheerfully endured to 
win subjects to the throne. In every land, amidst 
all civilizations, contested by multiform religions 
does this kingdom spread. Every advance is the 
enthronement of submission and surrender. It 
cometh not by observation. Its trophies may not 
be told in tale. Its subjects defy the criticism of 
ecclesiastical census -takers. The King alone knows 



THE KINGDOM OF GLORY. 



179 



His own. But secretly within the scaffolding and 
present appearance of events and things is this 
temple rising in the light and love of God. The 
kingdom comes with every day. Like mystic fire does 
it seek to subdue all things to itself. The oppres- 
sion, persecution, infidelity of this age are the fuel 
of love. They are consumed in the course of the 
King, who travels through time in the greatness of 
His strength. For in the labor of His true subject 
is the Lord incarnated. Every success is His inspira- 
tion. Disaster can only come through self-trust. 
He triumphs in his toil, who has been with Jesus 
and learned of Him. The nigher draws the King 
the more untiring is the warrior of love. He will 
not rest till the reign. There are enemies to be 
subdued at His feet. There are wanderers to be 
welcomed to His Cross. There are battle-mates to 
be cheered in the struggle. The slothful servant of 
such a sovereign is indeed wicked. The Master says : 
" Occupy till I come."* 

For the privilege of this co-reign with Christ the 
experience of the believer on earth must be a suita- 
ble preparation. The more he ceases from self in 

*Luke xix., 13. 



180 HE WILL COME. 

all its forms, and surrenders his mind, heart, will 
and life to the Saviour's control the more surely does 
he vindicate his vocation. He who consents to be 
nothing, that grace may have all the glory, is close 
to the crown. That life, which computes itself as 
zero and prefixes Christ as its numeral, becomes 
rich in proportion to its estimate of Him, who is 
precious to all that believe. The vision is nearing ! 
The King and the Throne ! " Rejoice, inasmuch as 
ye are partakers of Christ's sufferings ; that when 
His glory shall be revealed, ye may be glad also 
with exceeding joy."* 
* 1 Peter iv., 13. 

Break forth, O earth, in praises! 
Dwell on His wondrous story; 

The Saviour's name 

And love proclaim — 
The King who reigns in glory. 
See on the throne beside Him, 
O'er all her foes victorious, 

His royal bride 

For whom He died, 
Like Him forever glorious. 

Ye of the seed of Jacob ! 
Behold the Royal Lion 

Of Judah's line, 

In glory shine 
And nil His throne in Zion. 



THE KINGDOM OF GLORY. 



181 



Blest with Messiah's favor, 
A ransom'd holy nation, 

Your offerings bring 

To Christ your King, 
The God of your salvation. 

Come, O ye kings ! ye nations ! 
With songs of gladness hail Him; 

Ye Gentiles all 

Before Him fall, 
The Eoyal Priest in Salem. 
O'er hell and death triumphant, 
Your conquering Lord hath risen, 

His praises sound, 

Whose power hath hound 
Your ruthless foe in prison. 

Hail to the King of glory! 
Head of the new creation — 

Thy ways of grace 

We love to trace, 
And praise thy great salvation. 
Thy heart was prest with sorrow, 
The bonds of death to sever, 

To make us free, 

That we might be 
Thy crown of joy forever. 

Sir Edward Denny. 



I 



XIII. 

Glory Begun Below. 



So Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many : and unto them that 
look for Him shall He appear the second time without sin unto salvation. 
— Heb. ix., 23. 

Watch ye therefore, and pray always, that ye may be accounted worthy 
to escape all these things that shall come to pass, and to stand before the 
Son of Man.— Luke xxi., 36. 

Ye come behind in no gift : waiting for the coming of our Lord Jesus 
Christ : who shall also confirm you unto the end, that ye may be blameless 
in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ.— 1 Cor. i., 7, 8. 




E have traced the successive stages of 
a believer's glorified experience after 
the resurrection from the dead, and 
|^ the rapture through the skies. We have 
followed him in his presence before the 
Judgment Seat of Christ, and, his participa- 
tion of the feast of love at the Marriage of the 
Lamb. "We have forecasted his descent with the 



GLORY BEGUN BELOW. 183 

Lord, and all His hosts of saints and angels, to exe- 
cute judgment and enthrone righteousness among 
mortal men. And we have meditated upon the 
spirit and relations of the millennial reign which 
Messiah must maintain, until "the Son also Himself 
be subject unto Him that put all things under Him, 
that God may be all in all." * The progress of our 
thought has been sustained by the testimony of God. 

In the nature of things, we can know nothing 
concerning the future, except as He shall reveal it. 
Until the voice of the Spirit invites us, we dare not 
presume to look beyond the experience of the pres- 
ent, for the purposes of our God. But who is that 
deaf disciple, who w T ill not hear " a trumpet talk- 
ing,. . . .which said, Come up hither, and I will show 
thee things which must be hereafter." f He must in- 
deed be willingly ignorant, who declines to consider 
and credit the fulness of the teachings of God's 
Word in reference to the reserved portion of His 
redeemed people. They all cluster about, or rather 
converge in, the coming of the Lord. This is the 
final point of all unfulfilled prophecy and promise. 
Three hundred and eighteen passages in two hun- 

* 1 Cor. xv., 28. t Revel, iv., 1. 



184 HE WILL COME. 

dred and sixty chapters of the New Testament, or 
one verse in every twenty-five, are occupied with 
instruction about the appearing, the coming, the day 
and the reign of the Lord. Surely this large pro- 
portion of texts deserves, and of right demands, 
more patient study than has been given to them by 
the present generation of the church. It cannot be 
that we may safely ignore or pervert them. They 
embody the highest privileges and motives of the 
Christian life. To reject them is to impoverish 
one's self and the world. Moreover, the Spirit has 
spoken in terrible warning to those, who are tempted 
by waywardness and worldliness to turn $way from 
their influence. " See that ye refuse not Him that 
speaketh : for if they escaped not who refused 
Him that spake on earth, much more shall not we 
escape if we turn away from Him that speaketh 
from heaven : "Whose voice then shook the earth ; 
but now He hath promised, saying, Yet once more 
I shake not the earth only, but also heaven. And 
this word, Yet once more, signifieth the removing 
of those things that are shaken, as of things that 
are made, that those things which cannot be shaken 
may remain. Wherefore, we receiving a kingdom 



GLORY BEGUN BELOW. 



185 



which cannot be moved, let us have grace, whereby 
we may serve God. acceptably with reverence and 
godly fear." * Indifference to these revealed truths 
is impiety. They are declared to be needful not 
only to the higher frames but to the fact of 
acceptable service. 

In our present meditation we propose to suggest, 
as the words of the Spirit shall guide us, some of 
the practical effects upon Christian character and 
life of a steadfast anticipation of the appearing of 
the Lord. With its sad consequences to the world 
lying in the wicked one, we have nothing to do. 
They who send messages into the far country, "say- 
ing, We will not have this Man to reign over us," f 
may well dread the sudden conclusion of the dispen- 
sation of grace. It is only a knowledge that there 
is now a possible way to escape from damnation, 
which keeps godless men from despair. Procrasti- 
nators quiet their consciences with the insincere 
promise that, at some more convenient season, they 
will appropriate the salvation preached by the gos- 
pel. How lamentable will be their condition when 
the good news of grace are withdrawn from the 

* Heb. xii., 25-28. t Luke xix., 14. 



! 



186 HE WILL COME. 

world, and the witness of the Holy Ghost is finished ! 
To such "left" to live in the world, after believers 
have been transferred to the Glory, there can be 
only "a certain fearful looking for of judgment 
and fiery indignation, which shall devour the adver- 
saries."* Besides, what a decline and degeneration 
of society must result from the removal of all true 
believers in Christ. They are now " the salt of the 
earth " and " lights in the world." Their conscious 
and unconscious influence put confessed restraints 
upon the workings of wickedness. So far as the 
gospel moulds public opinion, is vice frowned down 
and virtue applauded. In communities, throughout 
which this refining influence does not spread, the 
inherent evil of the heart of man holds high carni- 
val without rebuke. Let unbelieving men asperse 
the church as they will, the most superficial obser- 
vation recognizes the compulsory reverence paid by 
impurity to purity, infamy to integrity and crime to 
Christ. The body of holy brethren are " beautiful 
as Tirzah, comely as Jerusalem, terrible as an army 
with banners," f even our enemies themselves being 
the judges. Who can describe the deepening dark- 

*Heb. x., 27. t Song of Sol. vi., 4. 



GLOEY BEGUN BELOW. 187 

ness of the period, which shall be absolutely devoid 
of all Divine light, and intervene between the dis- 
appearance and the descent of the saints with the 
Lord ? Horrors, such as we now only associate 
with hell, will make up the history of the earth. And 
when, having received the kingdom, the Nobleman 
returns, even a darker doom shall be declared. He 
shall say to them that surround Him : " Those mine 
enemies, which would not that I should reign over 
them, bring hither, and slay them before Me."* 
Without doubt there is this awful aspect of the 
coming of the Lord, which appeals to the prudence 
of the ungodly of every generation, and is a power- 
ful incentive to the zeal of the purchased people. 
They are most unwise who will not consider the 
possibility of its manifestation at any moment. The 
Master pleads : " Take heed to yourselves, lest at 
anytime your hearts be overcharged with surfeiting, 
and drunkenness, and cares of this life, and so that 
day come upon you unawares." | 

The believer's expectation of the appearing of 
the Lord is " full of glory." It is the inspiration 
of every excellence, the incentive to all endeavor 

* Luke xix., 27. t Luke xxi., 34. 











188 HE WILL COME. 




and the incitement to each deed of daring, which 
combine to form his character and fashion his life. 
The frequency, with which the promise occurs in 
the pages of the "Word of God, gives a presumptive 
proof of this assertion, that will be found to be 
fully established, as we pursue carefully and criti- 
cally an examination of separate passages. Can 
this oft-repeated assurance be, indeed, all a theory 
which a man may ignore, and yet be as developed 
in Christian character as though it were not written 
in the Word ? Is it only a dogma, upon which exe- 
getical scholars may employ their wits, and close 
their discussions with a drawn battle, without pres- 
ent influence upon either their own lives or those 
of others about them ? How can any assertion 
find place on so many pages of scripture as does 
this, and yet be inconsequential to Christian life ? 
Where is the parallel to this fact, which engages one 
twenty-fifth part of the whole New Testament, and yet 
possesses no practical importance or impressiveness ? 
' If you believe the record of the promise, what will 
it do for you ? Rather, what will it not do for you ? 
For we are bold to assert, on the testimony of the 
saints, that the anticipation of the second coming 









GLOB Y BEG UN BELO W. 189 

of Jesus Christ, is a pre-eminent, if not the sole 
motive of Christian life. Like Simeon, " devout be- 
fore God," in reference to the Lord's first manifesta- 
tion, to be the consolation of Israel, are they that look 
for His second coming. With St. Peter, we are 
constantly reminded by it, " what manner of per- 
sons ought ye to be in all holy conversation and 
godliness."* 

It must be evident that the person of the Lord 
Jesus Christ attains a prominence in the thought 
and experience of those, who rejoice in this "blessed 
hope," far beyond that, which is possible under any . 
other interpretation of these many texts. This is 
the sublime test of doctrine. The mission of the 
Holy Ghost is to glorify Jesus. Our privilege is 
to seek for "the knowledge of the glory of God in 
the face of Jesus Christ." The harmony of the 
Word and the health of the believer have the same 
necessity. The more Christ is exalted the nearer do 
we come to the mind of the Spirit. The intrusion 
of any secondary thought or thing between the 
saint and his Saviour, is not only impertinent but 
impious. They that "wait for the Lord from heaven" 

* 2PeJ;er iii., 11. 



190 HE WILL COME. 

are educated by the truth to a higher sense of 
responsibility to the Master. All obedience to 
earthly authority will be rendered " for the Lord's 
sake," whose personal rule so soon may be substi- 
tuted for that, which is " sent by Him for the pun- 
ishment of evil doers, and for the praise of them 
that do well."* The exalted Jesus is the true sov- 
ereign of our lives. Submission is rendered to Him. 
Every mercy is recognized as His gift. Appeal 
from injustice is made to His throne. The home- 
liest duty has this high motive : " Whatsoever ye do, 
do it heartily, as to the Lord, and not unto men ; 
knowing that of the Lord ye shall receive the 
reward of the inheritance: for ye serve the Lord 
Christ." | This was the peculiar mark of the 
apostolic and the persecuted church, when be- 
lievers looked for and hastened unto the coming 
of the Lord. A revival of the ancient doctrine 
must result in a quickening of the dormant spirit 
of surrender to Christ. 

But the glorified Lord is the companion as well as 
the Master of those, who love His aj)pearing. They 
realize His friendship. It is a fact, not a fiction. To 

* 1 Peter ii., 14. t Col. iii., 23, 24 



GLORY BEGUN BELOW. 191 

Him they refer their doubts. His words fault their 
fears. They have fellowship with Him in the love of 
the Father, and of all saints. Their knowledge of His 
resurrection and ascension banishes all dreaminess 
from their conception of His presence. Though we 
see Him not, yet is He none the less by our side. 
His grace and power are Himself. Just as every 
ray of light w T hich streams from the sun, is insepara- 
ble from its disk, whether into the curtained room, 
down the depth of the earth shaft, or over the harvest 
field it prophecies and heralds the presence of the 
sun itself, so does every gift of Jesus' love in- 
troduce a new realization of the Man from the 
Glory in the life of the believer. This faith-vision 
is contrasted by the apostle with the unveiled glories 
of the Son of Man. Full of compensation as is its 
appreciation, the patient waiter for Christ has some- 
what grander, in the outlook of his hope. " We 
are always confident, knowing that, whilst we are 
at home in the body, we are absent from the Lord : 
(for we walk by faith, not by sight.") * This absent 
King is He, whom the Holy Ghost makes a spiritual 
and actual factor of the believer's experience. 

* 2 Cor. v., 6, 7. 



192 BE WILL COME. 

To all this must be added the emphasis given 
by this promise to the imparted life of the Christ, 
which by the new birth becomes the possession of 
every believer. Within himself he knows assuredly 
that Jesus Christ abides. With St. Paul he con- 
fesses ; " I live ; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me : 
and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by 
the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and 
gave Himself for me."* His new nature is the 
resurrection-life of Jesus Christ. The conflict with 
his flesh, in which "dwelleth no good thing," is 
maintained by the growth of this new and Divine 
life, which " cannot sin because he is born of God." 
Howsoever humbled in self and fearful at the mo- 
tions of the sin that dwelleth within him, he has 
unshaken confidence in the certain control of that 
inner life, " that overcometh the world " and 
" doth not commit sin." His one absorbing concern 
is the development, by contemplation upon the ex- 
alted Lord and companionship with the spiritually 
revealed Christ, of that undying life, which shall at 
the Lord's coming be clothed upon with the body of 
glory. And then in the future for such a believer 

* Gal. ii., 20 ; 2 Cor. xiii., 5. 



GLORY BEGUN BELOW. 193 

there is nothing but Christ. It may be that he 
shall die. He does not dread it. He can never de- 
sire it. Indeed he rarely thinks about it. When 
forced upon his mind he receives it as the Mas- 
ter's will. But his prevailing anticipation is not a 
disembodied but a glorified residence with Christ, 
in which body, soul and spirit shall together share. 
Such association of life in, with, and for Christ 
cannot fail to secure an observed conformity to His 
example. He, who thus sets the Lord always before 
him, will be known and noted as " a man in Christ." 
This blessed hope annihilates all second causes and 
intermediate dispensations. " Christ is all and in 
all." Rutherford, in these choice words, expresses 
the experience of the Christian, " waiting for the 
coming of our Lord Jesus Christ : "* "I dare not 
accuse Himself — Christ — but His absence is a moun- 
tain of iron upon my heavy heart. O, when shall 
we meet ? O, how long is it to the dawning of the 
marriage day ! O, sweet Lord Jesus take long 
steps ! O, my Lord, come over mountains at one 
stride ! O, my beloved, flee like a roe, or a young 
hart, upon the mountains of separation ! O, that 

* 1 Cor. i., T. 



194 ME WILL COME. 

He would fold the heavens together, like an old 
cloak, and shovel time and days out of the way, and 
make ready in haste the Lamb's wife for her Hus- 
band ! Since He looked upon me my heart is not 
my own, He hath run away to heaven with it. How 
sweet is the wind that bloweth out of the quarter 
where Christ is ! Every day we may see some new 
thing in Christ ; His love hath neither brim nor 
bottom." 

The anticipation of His appearing impels the 
believer to receive with assurance the accomplish- 
ments of the offices of Christ. All forms of 
legalism are utterly inconsistent with such an out- 
look of hope. If indeed it be true that the Lord 
may come at any moment to claim His own, then 
does a confidence in His redemption and the pos- 
session of " your own salvation " * become an 
imperative necessity of true prudence. They, who 
do not look for such things, may discount the testi- 
mony of God's Word and delay in the attainment 
of rest, but not so can he do, who in a second may 
be subjected to the test of eternity. By no com- 
pany of Christians is attained so clear and discrim- 

* Phil, ii., 12. 



GLORY BEGUN BELOW. 195 

mating an apprehension of the great salvation, as 
among those who, withstood by this pressing 
problem, turn to the Word of God for a sufficient 
basis of peace and reason of hope. In all its 
liter alness they accept that which God has said. 
The righteousness and death of their atoning Substi- 
tute they perceive to have covered the entire disk of 
the Divine law. Redemption was finished when 
Jesus hung upon the Cross. Through it the voice 
of reconciliation and love is heard. And now 
submissively and faithfully its mercy and merit are 
appropriated by the sinner. He claims, on the trust- 
worthiness of Divine testimony, to be freely, fully 
and finally saved by the blood of the Crucified. The 
certificate of his release from the condemnation is 
read by him in the record of His Lord's resurrection. 
To this, with St. Paul, he appeals as the proof, that 
he is no longer in his sins, nor yet is his faith vain. 
Being represented in this Jesus, who was raised 
again for his justification, he has peace with God. 
His early experiences take him no farther than the 
Mount of Olives. The story of the ascension is a 
wonder to him, as it was to the first disciples. But 
temptation, trial and trouble are used by the Divine 



196 HE WILL COME. 



Spirit to interpret the meaning of this marvel. As 
He has been crucified, counted dead and conjoined 
in resurrection -with Christ, so now does he 
perceive his union of privilege with the exalted 
Saviour. His standing before God is complete in 
.the Beloved. His state of experience may be ever 
so unsatisfactory. These are two separate relations, 
which he recognizes to be clearly discriminated 
in the Divine mind. In Christ, the assessor and 
advocate, he claims absolute security. Sympathy 
for his sorrow, succor for his struggles and strength 
in his weakness come to him by that faith, which 
identifies him with the great High Priest. The 
intercession of Jesus in the Glory is the refuge of 
such a believer, whenever overtaken by sin. Every 
sense of forgiveness is the outgrowth of his 
oneness through the Word with Him, who is " the 
propitiation for our sins." Every short-coming 
in service is more than compensated by the offer- 
ing of His merit. Every supplication for gifts 
and graces is prevalent through the mingled in- 
cense of His mysterious advocacy. There is no 
monopoly in this grace of assurance. It is se- 
cured, not by effort and striving, but by a trust 

! 



GLORY BEGUX BELOW. 197 

that accepts as absolute truth, which neither man 
nor devils have permission to dispute, the Master's 
own words : " He that heareth My word, and be- 
lieveth on Him that sent Me, hath everlasting life, 
and shall not come into condemnation ; but is pass- 
ed from death unto life." * His faith gives their 
full force to the tenses of the verbs, chosen by the 
Spirit. Every preparation for the appearing is to be 
found in Christ. From all self-torment he ceases, 
and commences to give u thanks unto God, the 
Father, which hath made us meet for the inheri- 
tance of the saints in light : who hath delivered us 
from the power of darkness, and hath translated us 
into the kingdom of His dear Son : in whom we 
have redemption through His blood." Thus, " in- 
stead of striving to settle the question of his salva- 
tion, he learns to his unspeakable joy that it has 
been settled for him by the blood of Christ, and 
resting upon the finished work accomplished on the 
cross, and accepted according to the value which the 
Father places upon that work, he no longer dreads 
the thought of his Lord's return, because he already 
stands complete in Him, who of God is made unto 

* John v., 24. 



198 HE WILL COME. 

us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and 
redemption." * 

The fulness of the liberty of the glory of the 
children of God f will be revealed when Jesus comes. 
But the believer already possesses foretastes of its 
blessedness and brightness. The day-spring from 
on high hath visited him. The morning hours of 
the eternal day are already his. Glory has begun 
below. And " in such an hour as ye think not the 
Son of man cometh." % Then shall be the perfect 
noon. He tells off the times of his trial and toil by 
the -dial of the promises. All shadows fall into 
f orgetfulness as he faces this developing light. All 
successes shorten the interval of watching and wait- 
ing before the rest. The gains and losses, the frowns 
and flatteries, the caresses and curses, which unite 
to form his biography on earth, have lost their 
power either to elate or annoy him. One purpose 
prevails in all his experience. He will "walk in the 
light as He is in the light," that he " may be sin- 
cere and without offence till the day of Christ." § 
Never a miser counted with so much covetousness 

* J. H. Brookes, in Maranatha. t Rom. viii., 21 tMatt. xxiv., 44. § Phil. 
i. s 10. 



GrLOEY BEGUN BELOW. 



199 



his wealth, as does the patient waiter for the Lord 
tell off the tale of his possessions. The world, life, 
death, things present, things to come ; all are his, 
for he is Christ's and Christ is God's. His mercies 
outnumber his needs. He hears more calls to 
thanksgiving than to prayer. There are no clouds in 
his heaven. The God of grace has blotted them 
out forever. * There are no cares in his life. The 
ascended Lord careth for him. f There can be no 
anxiety in his soul. He is confident of this very thing 
that He, who hath begun a good work in him 
"will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ. "J 
There can come no fear in his future. He echoes 
the confession of St. Paul: "I am not ashamed: 
for I know whom I have believed, and am per- 
suaded that He is able to keep 'that which I have 
committed unto Him against that day." § So swiftly 
speeds time, while " every man that hath this hope 
in Him (of seeing Him and being like Him at His 
appearing) purifieth himself, even as He is pure." || 
One pain more and Jesus may be here ! Perchance 
a single struggle with sin, Satan and self, before the 

* Isaiah, xliv., 22 ; xliii., 25. 1 1 Peter v., 7. tPhil. i., G. §2 Tim. i., 12. 
Ill John iii., 3. 




200 



HE WILL COME. 



Lord will be by onr side ! Who shall be the last soul 
Avon for Christ by us before He comes ? The Chris- 
tian, who anticipates death, never thinks it near. It 
is the universal delusion of <?ur race to count all men 
mortal but ourselves. There is no impulse to patience 
and zeal in such an expectation. Indeed as the 
years increase the power of the motive is dissipated. 
Yputh trembles more by the side of the grave than 
tottering age. Besides the gospel will outlive his 
life. This is the self -comforting creed of such a be- 
liever, as he looks upon his unsaved friends. His 
labor for others' salvation will be supplemented by 
succeeding ministries. And so he inevitably relaxes 
effort. Let him once apprehend the imminence of 
the Lord's appearing, and how instantly must his 
plan of life be changed. " Quickly " is the word, 
which expresses both his hope and obligation. Whilst 
there is time he would do good unto all men. The 
hours of his day of grace must be divided by moments. 
Mayhap one more, and then — the glory ! What 
an inspiring hope is this ! There is no time for 
tarrying or trifling — the Lord cometh ! Well wrote 
Richard Baxter : "If I were but sure that I 
should live to see the coming of the Lord, it would 



GLOBY BEGUN BELOW. 201 

be the joyfullest tidings to me in the world. O that 
I might see His kingdom come ! It is the charac- 
teristic of His saints to love His appearing and to 
look for that blessed hope. The Spirit and the 
Bride say, Come. Even so, come, Lord Jesus. 
Come quickly, is the language of faith and hope 
and love." 

Let not my eyes with tears be dim, * 
Let joy their upward glance illume ; 

Look up, and watch, and wait for Him — 
Soon, soon the Lord will come. 

Soon will that star-paved milky way, 
Soon will that beauteous azure dome, 

Glories, ne'er yet conceived display — 
Soon, soon the Lord will come. 

Changed in the twinkling of an eye, 

Invested with immortal bloom, 
I shall behold Him throned on high, 

And sing, " The Lord is come ! " 

One beam from His all -glorious face 
These mortal garments will consume, 

Each sinful blemish will eiface — 
Lord Jesus, quickly come ! 

What will it be with Thee to dwell, 

Thyself my everlasting home! 
Oh bliss — oh joy ineffable! 

Lord Jesus, quickly come ! 

C. Elliott. 



XIV. 

Then Cometh the Rnd. 



Heaven and earth shall pass away.— Mark xiii., 31. 

Behold, I create new heavens and a new earth.— Isaiah lxv., 17. 




EOPHECY is a Divine picture of 
events that must be hereafter. For 
its intelligent apprehension it is 
needful that careful attention should 
be given to the law of perspective. The 
facts figured in the foreground are so fully 
discriminated, that they may be readily understood 
in their reality and relations. Beyond these are 
portrayed other predictions, which present concep- 
tions of the Divine fore-knowledge, that amaze more 
than they instruct. The outline of this light and 



THEN COMETH THE END. 203 

shadow is in relief upon bold masses of cloud-land, 
which make the background of the Designer's work. 
But for this far removed region, in wmich curiosity 
and conjecture have their pastime, the truths that we 
have traced in these pages could not have attained 
their clearly determined manifestation. The uncer- 
tainty of the events, which shall come with the end, 
fore-shortens the facts, ready to be revealed. The 
effect of the whole revelation is dependent upon the 
mystery and majesty of that which is reserved. Our 
knowledge at the best is comparative. When in the 
study of the Divine Word we reach the closing portions 
of the sacred volume we can only bow in reverence 
before the Lord, who half conceals while He half 
makes plain His purposes. When we shall have 
been glorified in the Kingdom of Christ then will 
we be capable to comprehend the substance, which 
now we study in symbol. Truth enough has been 
taught us about the events, that are nigh at hand. 
For the details of the dispensation, which shall 
succeed the millennium, we must wait until God shall 
speak again. 

And yet in these distant prophecies there are 
not deficient clearly determined features and figures 



204 HE WILL COME. 

of excellent glory. To these, in the words of the 
Spirit, we invite prayerful attention. They repre- 
sent events which will wed the thousand years of 
reign to the eternity. The end will be the beginning. 

After the thousand years the devil must be loosed 
out of his prison a little season. * 

" Three days the Prince of Darkness, day and night, 

Though night was now what day had once appeared, 

Flew with disastrous pi Dion to and fro 

Over the renovated earth. No shore 

Escaped his gloomy visitation. Straight 

From Arctic to Antarctic climes he pass'd, 

And in the dubious light from East to West, 

Only so steering his pernicious course 

As to avoid Emmanuel's saintly land, 

Ontstripp'd the rising sun. The glorious sight 

Fill'd him with envy and amaze: so soon 

His footprints, as it seem'd, had been effaced; 

So transient evil's film ; so naturally 

Goodness and mercy had reclaim'd their own. 

Not that the sparse and rare remains of ill 

Escaped his sympathetic eye, or fail'd 

To awaken pleasure in the Evil One : 

But these were few and far. The earth was fall 

Of gladness ; and her hymns of ceaseless praise, 

Rich with the music of his Rival's name, 

Grated worse discord in his ear than all 

Hell's wailings." t 

Satan " shall go out to deceive the nations which 

are in the four quarters of the earth, Gog and 

* Rev. xx., 3. t Yesterday, To-day and Forever— E. H. Bickersteth. 



THEN COMETH THE END, 205 

Magog, to gather tliem together to battle: the number 
of whom is as the sand of the sea. And they went 
up on the breadth of the earth, and compassed the 
camp of the saints about, and the beloved city : and 
fire came down from God out of heaven and de- 
voured them. And the devil that deceived them 
was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone, where 
the beast and the false prophet are, and shall be tor- 
mented for ever and ever.* 

" And I saw a great white throne, and Him that 
sat on it."| 

" The rest of the dead lived not again until the 
thousand years were finished. "J They " shall come 
forth they that have done evil to the resur- 

rection of damnation." § They "shall awake. . . .to 
shame and everlasting contempt." || 

" And I saw the dead, small and great, stand be- 
fore God ; and the books were opened ; and another 
book was opened, which is the book of life : and the 
dead were judged out of those things which were 
written in the books, according to their works .... 
and whosoever was not found written in the book of 

* Rev. xx., 8-10. t / bid, 11. XI bid, 5. § John v., 29. II Daniel xii., 1. 



206 HE WILL COME. 

life was cast into the lake of fire/'* " the fire that 
never shall be quenched ; where their worm dieth 
not, and the fire is not quenched."! "And death 
and hell were cast into the lake of fire."^ "The 
last enemy that shall be destroyed is death." § 

" The heavens shall pass away with a great noise, 
and the elements shall melt with fervent heat ; the 
earth also, and all the works that are therein shall 
be burned up."|| "The heavens shall vanish away 
like smoke, and the earth shall wax old like a gar- 
ment." IT "As a vesture shalt thou fold them up 
and they shall be changed."** From the face of 
Him that sat on the Throne, " the earth and the 
heaven fled away : and there was found no place 
for them."tt 

" And He that sat upon the throne said, Behold, 
I make all things new."JJ " Behold, I create new 
heaven and a new earth." §§ "And I saw a new 
heaven and a new earth : for the first heaven and 
the first earth were passed away ; and there was no 

* Rev. xx., 12-15. t Mark ix., 43. i Rev. xx., 14. § 1 Cor. xv., 26. 0 2 Peter 
iii., 10. IT Isaiah li., 6. **Heb. i., 12. ttRev. xx., 11. it Rev. xxi., 5. 
§§ Isaiah lxv., 17. 



THEN COMETH THE END. 207 

more sea." * " New heavens and a new earth, 
wherein dwelleth righteousness."! 

u Then cometh the end, when He shall have de- 
livered up the kingdom to God, even the Father : 
when He shall have put down all rule, and all au- 
thority and power And when all things shall be- 

subdued unto Him, then shall the Son also Himself 
be subject unto Him that put all things under Him, 
that God may be all in all." % 

What an earth will this be on that Festival Day ! 
Purified by fire, fruitful as Eden, beautiful in the 
sunshine from unknown skies and crowned with the 
Divine presence — glorified bodies could ask no bet- 
ter home than such a world will be. If it be true that, 
in company with the whole solar system, our earth 
is transported through one hundred and fifty-four 
millions of miles of space in each year, then phys- 
ically we are entering into the inconceivable glories 
of new heavens. The Word of God is echoed by 
the discovery of man. What wonders may dawn 
upon our planet when the end of the mediatorial 

* Revel, xxi., 1. 1 2 Peter iii., 13. 1 1 Cor. xv., 24, 28. 



208 HE WILL COME. 

reign shall have come ! Fancy frets at its impo- 
tence to conceive all that may be. Faith is content 
with the certainty of that which will be. 

Oh, past are the Fast Days, the Feast Day, the Feast Day is 
come, 

The solitude endeth, the Guest most beloved is come. 
Deserted one, thou hast deserted thy desert at last ! 

0 love! the Beloved, who cannot desert thee, is come ; 
And sever'd the severing ; departed for ever the parting ; 
And met is the meeting : the One, the most blessed, is come! 
The fleeting has fleeted ; the ban of the Exile is banish'd ; 

Far distant the distance; the Bird to the nestlings is come ! 
The Moon to the sky, to the desolate garden the Rose, 
To the palace forsaken the King in his glory is come, 
The Life to the root, and the Sap to the height of the tree : 
The Wreath to the sprays, and the Crown to the branches, is 
come ! 

And now let him come ; the assaulter who fain would assault 
me ; 

1 am safe in the Tower ; my Tower of shelter is come ! 
Now cast on me ever and ever the fire of love ; 

I fear not the fire ; my Robe of Asbestos is come ! 
As soon as they heard it, that Thou with salvation wert nigh : 
Behold every heart, heavy laden with sorrow, is come ! 
O Vessel of Fulness, pour'd out for the thirst of the worlds, 
We thank Thee, we thank Thee ! to us Thy refreshing is come ! 
For long came no breeze to the deserts unblest ; and now One 
With wings which the dew of all blessing has moisten'd, is 
come ! 

We have waited till voice of the Spring should awaken the 
dead : 

Behold, from the East to the West the Spring-glory is come ! 

From the German. 



PASSAGES OF SCPJPTUBE ILLUSTRATED 
AND INTERPRETED. 



OLD TESTAMENT. 





PAGE. 


PAGE. 


Hon ii OA 

\jrcil. 11., £& .... 


. 124 


Isaiali lxv., 17 


OC\0 OCiR 


11 iii OA. 


152 


Jer. iii., 14 ... . 


160 




66 


" iii. 17 ... . 


162 




162 


" xxxi. 34 


164 


H 1 v vi i Q 


. . .157 


Ezek. xxi., 26, 27 . . 


171 


Song of Sol. iii., 11 . . 


... 128 


" xxi., 27 . . . 


. . . 103 


" v., 2, 4, 5 . 


, . . 128 


" xlviii., 35 . . 


... 162 


v., 16 . 


... 87 


Dan. ii., 44 ... . 


. 150 


" vi 4 


. . . 1S6 


" vii. 


1 7ft 


TqqiqVi vi P\ Q 


... 163 


" vii., 14 . . . . 


1 i 1 


a x [ g 


... 170 


" ni., 22 ... . 


1 

144 


m xi T 


, 168, 172 


" xi., 36 . . . . 




" xxiv 28 


... 151 


" xii., 1 ... 


205 


" xxviii 5 


... 100 


" xii., 3 .... 


113 


" xxviii., 21 . . 


... 141 


Micali iii., 12 . . . 


. . .151 


" XL, 31 . . . 


... 62 


ct iv., 1, 2 . . . 


... 151 


" xliii., 25 . . . 


... 199 


" vii., 8 .... 


... 64 


" xliv., 22 . . . 


... 199 


Hab. ii., 14 ... . 


. . . 164 


" xlvii., 8 . . . 


... 129 


Hag. ii., 9 . . . . 


. . . 57 


" Ii.,6 . . . . 


... 206 


Zech. xii., 10 . . . 


... 47 


" lx.,9 .... 


... 162 


" xiv., 5 . . . 


. . . 140 




. . . 162 


Mai. iii., 1-3 ... . 


... 82 


" lxii., 5 . . . 


... 119 


" iii., 17 .... 


. . . 32 


" lxii., 7 . . . 










NEW TESTAMENT. 






PAGE. 




PAGE. 


Matt, ii., 2 . . . . 


. . . 165 


Matt, viii., 11 . . . 




" iii., 2 . . . . . 


. . . 16S 


" x., 7 . . . . 




«f iv., 8 . . . . 


, . . 172 


" X., 42 . . . . 


. . . 97 


«i iv., 17 . . . . 


. . . 16S 


" xi., 29 . . . " . 




« vi., 20 ... . 


. . .. 98 


" xiii., 39 . . . 





210 



HE WILL COME. 







PAGE. 




PAGE. 


Matt, xiii., 41 ... . 


. . 160 


Luke xiv., 14 ... . 


. . 59 




xvi., 2T . . . . 


. . 140 




xvi., 22 ... . 


. . 136 




xvi., 27, 2S . . . 






xvii., 26, 28, 30 . . 


. . 143 




xvii., 1, 2 . . . . 


. . 79 




xvii., 34, 35 . . . 


. . 37 




xvii., 2 . . . . 


. . 86 




xviii., 34 ... . 


. . 53 










xix., 11 . . 


. 175 












. . 179 








CI 




. . 185 






. . 83 




xix., 27 ... . 


. . 187 




xix., 28 ... . 


. . 177 




XX., 35, 36 . . . 


, , 59 






. . 175 




XXi., 24 ... . 


149 




XX., 23 


. . 175 




XXi., 27, 23 . . . 


. . 62 




XX., 25-28 .... 


. . 176 




XXi., 34 ... . 










CI 








XXii., 23 ... . 


. . 54 






. . 174 




XXiv., 14 ... . 


. . 144 


it 


xxiv., 50, 51 . . . 


. . 33 




















ii., 1 










ii 












it 


v., 24 


. . 197 




xxiv., 45 ... . 


. -. 106 


a 


v., 25 


52 


it 






a 


V., 29 


. . 205 


a 




. . 115 


a 






a 




. . 116 


a 


Vi., 39, 40, 44, 54 . . 


. . 60 


tt 




. . 132 


it 


Xi., 26 




a 


XXV., 23 ... . 




a 




, 38 


it 


XXV., 31, 32 . . . 


. . 161 


it 


Xiv., 2, 3 . . . . 


27 


tt 




. . 134 






38, 120 


CI 


XXVi., 39-42 . . . 




a 




. . 169 


CI 








xiv., 28 . . . . 


27 


Mark ii., 19, 20 . . . . 


. . 130 






. 27 


CI 






it 


xvi., 22 . . . . 


. . 27 


(C 






a 




. . 102 


CI 


x., 7 


. . 124 


a 




. . 92 


c< 




, . 147 


a 






II 


xiii., 31 ... . 


202 


a 




. . 174 


II 




, . 69 


a 


XXi., 21-23 . . . 


39 




. . 83 


it 




63 


CI 




, 86 




176 


CI 




, . 88 






. . 144 


it 




. . 145 






. . 33 


a 


xii., 35-3T, 40 . . 


. . 137 


a 




. . 42 


it 


xii.,36 


. . 18 


a 




. . 72 



SCRIPTURES ILLUSTRATED, $c. ' 211 







PAGE. 




PAGE. 




43 


1 Cor. xv., 52 . . . 


. . . Ill 




144 


a 




56 


" xvii. 


, 32 . . . 


53 


a 




70 75 




54 




xv., 55-57 . , 


70 


Rom. i., 23 . . . . 


111 




50 


11 v.,1 


,2 . . . . 


94 


n 




71 


" vi., 




48 


a 




191 


" viii. 


1 . . . . 


14 


n 


XT ft 


25 


" viii. 




58 




v 10 


95 


il viii. 


19-23 . . 


158 


a 


xri 1/1 


127 


11 viii. 


21 . . . 


198 






120 


** viii.. 




43 


u 


xiii 2 5 * ' * 


192 


" viii. 




101 


Gal 


ii 20 


192 


" xi., 


26 ... . 


163 


n 




100 






18 






101 


" xiv. 




95 


it 


i v 1ft 


42 




21 


li 




4S 63 


" i., 7 . . . . 


193 




XT Qft 


128 


" I., 7 


,8. . . . 


1S2 


il 


it- QO 


125 






164 


a 




97 






96 






104 


" !!!•' 


11, 12 , . 


95 


Phil 


. i., 6 


199 






95 




i., 10 . . . . 


198 






95 


a 


i., 20, 21 . . . 


70 


" iii., 




56 






25 


" iii., 




70 




ii., 12 .... 


194 






91 


n 


iii., 8, 10, 11 


59 




2 . . . . 


159 


a 


iii., 14 .... 


103 


" vi., 


2, 3 . . . 


106 


a 


iii., 20, 21 . . . 


46 




14. . . . 


56 


Col 


L, 12 


93 




15 ... . 


56 


a 


iii., 1 


43 


" vi., 


17 ... . 


12S 


a 




fi^ i ^ft 


" ix., 


24, 25 . . 


110 


a 


iii., 23, 24 . . . 


190 




26 ... . 


34 


a 


iii., 24 ... . 


98 


" xiii., 12 . . . 


. . . 150 


1 Thess. i., 9, 10 


97 


" XV. 


, 23 . . . 


... 58 




" i.,10 . . . 




" XV. 


24 . . . 


. . . 59 




" ii., 19, 20 


... 114 


" XV. 


24, 28 . , 


. . . 207 




" iii., 13 


... 157 


" XV. 


, 26 . . . 


. . . 206 




" iv., 15-17 




" XV. 


, 28 . . . . 


. . . 183 




" iv., 15-18 , 




" XV. 


, 42-4 . . . 


... 55 




" iv., 16 . . . 


. . 58, 87 


" XV. 








" iv., 17 . . . 


. . 29, 91 


" XV. 


, 51 . . . 


... 75 




" V., 23 . . . 





212 HE WILL COME. 



PAGE. 



2 Tliess. i., 7, 8 . . 


. , . . 


155 


a 


ii., 3, 7, S . 




146 


t 


ii., 7 . . 




154 








97 






143 


it 






127 








120 






70 


a 




. . . 94, 


199 




ii., 12 . . . 


. 106, 150, 


157 








54 




iit, 1 . . . 




143 








37 


it 


iv., 8 . . . 




114 


Titus ii., 11-13 , 




13 




hi., 8 . . . 




9S 


Heb. i., 12 . . . 




206 


<< 


ii., s, 9 . . . 




177 


it 


ii., 14, 15 , , 




70 




iv., 1 . . . 




101 


a 


ix., 24 . . . 




43 




ix., 26 . . . 




14 


it 


ix., 2S . . . 


... 14, 


182 


tt 


X., 27 . . . 




186 


ii 


xi., 1 . . . 




42 




xi., 5 . . . 




66 


ii 


Xi., 26 . . . 




111 




Xi., 35 . . . 




58 


tt 


Xi., 39, 40 




61 


a 


xii., 8 . . . 




100 








1S5 




xiii., 4 . . . 




127 




xiil, 5 . . . 




102 






107 




iv., 4 . 




130 


1 Peter t, 4-23 




111 


it 


i., 5 . . . 




93 


a 


i., 6, 7 




101 




i., 8, 9 




34 




i., 13 . . . 




121 




ii., 14 




190 


n 


iii., 4 . . . 




111 




iv., 13 




180 




v., 4 . . . 




112 


a 


v., 7 . . . 




199 



PAGE. 

1 Peter v., 8 102 

" v., 10 102 

2 Peter i., 12-15 ...... 73 

" i., 16-18 78 

" iii., 3, 4 143 

" iii., 10 206 

" iii., 11 189 

" iii., 13 207 

r John iii., 2 34, 165 

" iii., 3 199 

Judel4, 15 161 

"24 134 

Revel, i., 5, 6 S9 

" t,7 140. 

" i., 14 97 

" ii., 10 10S 

" iii., 4 93 

" iii., 11 ...... 100 

" iii., 21 • . 92 

u iv., 1 183 

K iv., 11 117 

" v., 8 166 

" v., 10 106 

" vii., 14 97 

" xi., 15 157, 173 

" xii., 5 66 

" xiv., 4 141 

" xviii., 7 129 

" xix., 6, 7 120 

" xix., 9 135 

" - Xix., 11-14 142 

" XX.. 3 • 204 

" XX., 4 165 

" XX., 5 . . . . . . 58, 205 

" XX., 6 ...... . 52 

" XX., S-10 205 

" XX., 11 205, 206 

" XX., 12 95 

" XX., 12-15 206 

" XX., 14 206 

" xxi., 1 . . . . . .207 

" XXi., 4 92 

" xxi., 5 206 

" xxii., 20 132 



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